Charles Addams, in full Charles Samuel Addams, (born January 7, 1912, Westfield, New Jersey, U.S. died September 29, 1988, New York City, New York), cartoonist whose drawings, known mostly through The New Yorker magazine, became famous in the United States as examples of macabre humour. Addams attended various schools from 1929 to 1932; thereafter, aside from a brief period as a commercial artist, he was a free-lance cartoonist, selling his first work to The New Yorker in 1933. His cartoons began to attract considerable popular attention about 1940. Addams became famous for his ironic depictions of morbid or inexplicable behaviour by