John Astin

I am going to use the excuse that it's Christmas next week and you may have some shopping left to do to review three DVD sets I have been meaning to write about for months. (Something came up.) All are comedies. Two are complete sets and one is the...

Johns Hopkins University students scramble to sign up for a coveted spot in the acting and directing classes taught by John Astin. After all, who wouldn't want to study theatrical techniques with a famous actor? Internationally known for his role as...

WEATHER The National Weather Service is calling for Wednesday Wednesday to be sunny in the Baltimore area, with a high near 88. Wednesday night is expected to be partly cloudy, with a low around 69. Thursday is expected to be sunny, with a high near 94....

Benjamin Wade spent his dinner hour Tuesday lying on a bed of nails, smiling as a stream of people, including Baltimore's mayor and TV's Gomez Addams, stood on his stomach and posed for pictures. Better known by his stage name, SideShow Bennie, Wade...

When she was a little girl, Dawn Gomez, 19, lulled herself to sleep watching the horror films "Bride of Chucky" and "Friday the 13th." So it's no wonder that Gomez dressed as Batman's enemy Poison Ivy on Saturday and joined thousands of fellow goblins and...

It has all the weight and nutritional value of cotton candy. But "The Addams Family," the Broadway musical that has taken up temporary residence at the Hippodrome Theatre, adds up to a mildly entertaining package of song and shtick. Revised since its New...

After a performance of "The Addams Family," the Broadway musical now playing at the Hippodrome Theatre, a tall, bald, mustachioed man went backstage to greet the cast — the original, the ultimate Gomez Addams, John Astin. Douglas Sills, who...

Circus performers in all their gaudy glory. A timeline linking the actors who have played James Bond to the U.S. presidents at the time the movies came out. Rosemary's baby. The Make Studio on North Avenue, celebrating its second anniversary with a...

It's official: Gomez has own theater. A newly renovated theater in the Johns Hopkins University's Merrick Barn was renamed Saturday in honor of the actor who originated the role on television of Gomez Addams, husband to Morticia and patriarch of one of...

Theater audiences are typically faced with no-no's before the action starts — no recording devices of any kind, no picture-taking. Things are a little different at performances of "Bump," a dark comedy currently receiving its premiere production...

A moody tavern. An extraordinary cocktail. The easy lapping of bay water against the banks of the Inner Harbor. Duckpin lanes. Old Bay. Art in an otherwise empty storefront. For all of these things, and for so many more, people love Baltimore. People feel...

Friday July 19, 1996      "The Frighteners" is out of the ordinary run of things. The kind of major commercial project that usually comes from slick, standard-issue directors, it arrives this time courtesy of New Zealand's dark and eccentric Peter...