John Astin, the original Gomez Addams, grew up in Bethesda

John Astin, the original Gomez Addams on TV's The Addams Family, grew up in Bethesda. He lived with his family in a house on Battery Lane. His father, Allen V. Astin, was the Director of the National Bureau of Standards. Known as NIST today, the bureau was located in the District at that time, and Allen Astin played a major role in the planning and development of its future Gaithersburg campus.

John Astin married actress Patty Duke in the backyard of the Battery Lane home in 1972, according to an Associated Press account at the time. His soon-to-be-adopted son, actor Sean Astin, was an 18-month-old guest at the ceremony. Sean Astin would go on to star in The Goonies, Rudy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and visited his grandparents on Battery Lane during his childhood. Allen Astin would live in Bethesda until his death in 1984, according to The New York Times.

Alas, the Astin home at 5008 Battery Lane was later demolished to make way for condos near the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad. But John Astin is still a Maryland resident today. He lives in Baltimore, and is the Director of the Theater Arts and Studies Department and Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns Hopkins University. Astin graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1952.

Photo courtesy ABC