Carolyn Sue Jones (April 28, 1930 – August 3, 1983) was an American actress of television and film. Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party (1957) and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising new actresses of 1959. Her film career continued for another 20 years. In 1964, she began playing the role of matriarch Morticia Addams in the original 1964 black and white television series The Addams Family.
Early life
Carolyn Jones was born in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Chloe Jeanette Southern, a housewife, and Julius Alfred Jones, a barber. After their father abandoned the family in 1934, Carolyn and her younger sister, Bette Rhea Jones, moved with their mother into her maternal grandparents' Amarillo home. Jones suffered from severe asthma that often restricted her childhood activities, and when her condition prevented her from going to the movies, she became an avid reader of Hollywood fan magazines and aspired to become an...