Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams
January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988
American cartoonist known for his
particularly black humor and macabre characters.
Some of the recurring characters, who became
known as The Addams Family,
became the basis for two live-action
television series,
two animated TV series,
three motion pictures,
and a Broadway musical...
"Ghoulish, macabre, demonic, depraved, bizarre,
and weird have all been used to describe his work
and the characters therein."
In September 1988, when he died of a heart attack
inside his parked car, his third wife Marilyn
(whom he had married in a pet cemetery) made
a remark that could have been a caption for one
of his cartoons: "He's always been a car buff, so it
was a nice way to go,"
she told The New York Times.