Gomez Addams
A devoted husband, a wealthy eccentric, and a swordsman with a pencil mustache as sharp as his rapier — Raul Julia's definitive Gomez.
- Actor
- Raul Julia
- Film
- The Addams Family
- Year
- 1991
- Medium
- Movie
- Style
- Pencil
- Fan Votes
- 0 legendary · 0 meh
Why Gomez Addams's Mustache Matters
Gomez Addams had been drawn by Charles Addams and played by John Astin before Raul Julia took the role in The Addams Family (1991), but Julia's version is the one most people picture: pinstriped suit, cigar, a romantic's wild eyes, and a razor-thin pencil mustache that looks like it was drawn with the same pen as the original cartoons.
The mustache is part of the character's whole energy. Gomez is passionate about everything — his wife Morticia, his children, swordplay, model trains, and the family's general commitment to the macabre — and the pencil lip gives him the flair of a 1930s matinee idol dropped into a haunted mansion.
Julia returned for Addams Family Values (1993), and the two films remain the high-water mark for the character. The mustache committee has never found a finer example of a man who is both deeply strange and deeply happy.
- *The Addams Family* (1991) was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and co-starred Anjelica Huston as Morticia and Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester.
- Raul Julia (1940–1994) was a celebrated Broadway actor who earned four Tony Award nominations, including for *Nine* (1982).
- Gomez was originally drawn by cartoonist Charles Addams for *The New Yorker*, beginning in 1938.
How to Grow the Pencil
Thin, sharp, and dangerous. The mustache of leading men, jazz cats, and people who own tuxedos.
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