Jimmy Workman, who played Pugsley in The Addams Family, has built a career behind the camera and a family life in California since his days as the character.
At a rare Addams Family reunion panel at Los Angeles Comic Con on October 5, 2024, Workman appeared with a beard and glasses, decades after playing Pugsley as a child. He joined Christina Ricci, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Carel Struycken onstage at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
He works in film and television transportation as a coordinator and captain. His work includes coordinating transportation for Queen of the Ring and second-unit driving on Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. He’s a longtime member of Teamsters Local 399, the union that represents transportation and logistics workers in the entertainment industry.
Workman was 11 when he made his film debut in 1991’s The Addams Family. He had gone along to an audition for Wednesday with his older sister Shanelle when director Barry Sonnenfeld and producer Scott Rudin noticed him playing on the set. They asked him to read for Pugsley and cast him immediately.
Ricci played Wednesday, Huston played Morticia, Raúl Juliá played Gomez, and Lloyd played Uncle Fester. Sonnenfeld brought him back for the 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values.
As Pugsley, he was the willing partner in Wednesday’s schemes, sitting in the electric chair, joining in on the dangerous experiments, and sharing her taste for explosives and homemade gadgets. His deadpan reactions and easygoing chaos helped define the 1990s version of the character.
He also voiced Marvin on the animated series Life with Louie and appeared as Pugsley on Saturday Night Live. His final on-screen credit was To Kill a Mockumentary in 2004, though he’s continued to appear at horror conventions and Hollywood Shows.
He’s been married to Hayley Freudiger-Workman since September 2020, and their daughter, Paisley, was born in 2021. Acting runs in the family: his younger sister is Ariel Winter, who played Alex Dunphy on Modern Family.
