There have been many memorable matriarchs in media, but none quite so morbid as Morticia Addams. Morticia, the wife of Gomez and the mother to Wednesday and Pugsley, first appeared in Charles Addams’ cartoons for The New Yorker but is probably best-known for her appearances in the various Addams Family television shows and films.

Morticia was based on Charles’ first wife, Barbara, and did not actually have a name in the newspaper cartoons – though she was one of the only characters shown to speak (along with Gomez and Grandmama). When developing the television series in the 1960s, she was given the name Morticia, derived from the Latin word for “death.”

Morticia, like everyone else in the Addams Family, is somewhat eccentric; she is said to wear baking powder on her face instead of makeup to appear as pale as she does, and when she “smokes” it doesn’t involve tobacco of any kind, but rather smoke appearing from underneath her.

She’s been portrayed by a number of actresses over the years, including Carolyn Jones in the 1960s television series, Anjelica Huston in the 1991 and 1993 films, Daryl Hannah in the 1998 film, and Ellie Harvie in The New Addams Family. More recently, Catherine Zeta-Jones has played Morticia in the Wednesday series on Netflix.