Cousin Itt's Bad Hair Day

 Cousin Itt (Felix Silla) welcomes a visit from Gomez  (John Astin) 

and Morticia (Carolyn Jones) in his bedroom. "Every time they 

came in, they had to scoot down, especially when Ted Cassidy 

(Lurch) came through the door. It was funny. He had to crawl 

down on his hands and knees to go out the door!" says Silla. 

(Courtesy of  Felix Silla)

Felix Silla played the recurring role of Cousin Itt in The Addams Family from 1964 to 1966. The Italian-born actor joined Carolyn Jones, John Astin, Jackie Coogan and other cast members on the 20^th episode of the first season. Carolyn was intrigued by the introduction of Silla's character. “What side of the family is “it” take after?" she asked creator Charles Addams. "Both sides, I hope."

Silla, who made guest appearances in Petticoat Junction, The Monkees, Bewitched, H. R. Pufinstuf, Night Gallery, Star Trek, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Married…with Children, also in the cast of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century.

I interviewed Felix for my book, In Morticia’s Shadow: The Life & Career of Carolyn Jones, and we discussed not only his memories of the actress behind Morticia but also what it was like to don the unusual costume that transformed him into Cousin Itt.

James Pylant: Do you have any special memories of working with Carolyn Jones?

Felix Silla: She was a wonderful person, a really talented actress. We worked together, but we never had any conversation. I was brand new to the business. It was my second film so I didn’t really have too much to talk to her about it. But we had a lot of fun working on the show.

JP: What do you remember about the interaction between Carolyn and John Astin?

FS: I had never seen such! It was beautiful, beautiful. You know, John had a lot of fun when she was speaking French. Every time she he would kiss her arm and things like that.

JP: When I watched reruns of The Addams Family as a child, what I enjoyed most of all were the episodes with Cousin Itt. Kids loved your character.

FS: I’ll tell you, I never thought 45 years ago that people were going to keep talking about it. I mean, I’ve done a lot of things. I played in Buck Rogers—I played the robot.  When I say ‘I did Buck Rogers,’ they say what’s Buck Rogers? But everybody knows The Addams Family.

JP: Tell me about your Cousin Itt outfit. That looks like it would be awfully hot to wear.

FS: They started out with human hair, and it was really heavy and very, very hot. Then they realized that the human hair was too flammable. So they came in with the synthetic material, because it was lighter and it was also not flammable. On the set the crew would go get a cup of coffee and smoke a cigarette. So when they’re through with the cigarette, they would just throw it in the floor and step on it; sometimes they would miss. The director said, “If you walk around with that thing like a mop—like you're moping the floor—you're going to hit a lit cigarette butt and go up in flames.” That’s why they came up with synthetic wigs. Not only that, the human hair wig was very expensive. I understand it was like $7,000 or $8,000.

JP: Was it hard to breathe wearing the thick human hair wig—especially under those hot lights?

FS: It was really hard to breathe, yes. It was very, very heavy. In those days, they used these huge lights. I tell you, when you’re standing there in that thing—in 100 degree temperature—it’s very hot!