[H. Kevin] Miserocchi knew Addams for just nine years before the cartoonist suffered a fatal heart attack in 1988, but he continued a friendship with his wife, moving onto the Sagaponack estate two years later to, first, keep her company, and then helm the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. It is where he both lives and works to this day, following her death in 2002.
The man who Miserocchi came to know as the creator of The Addams Family did not match the rumors widely circulated about him: for instance, that he slept in a coffin, regularly frequented an asylum for rest and relaxation, and loved to wear a monogrammed straitjacket.
In fact, Addams, who married Miller, was far from dark, strange, odd or otherwise, Miserocchi said. Soft-spoken and demure, he was quiet and shy in public, but disarming and charming with his friends and family. He had a childlike smile that never showed his teeth, and a twinkle in his eye that spoke to his humor, keenly observing of the world around him.
Michelle Trauring, for 27 East.com, and H. Kevin Miserocchi, for the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, discuss the great cartoonist Charles Addams.
Book covers via Christopher Wheeler.