Born on March 30, 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in Washington, D.C., John Astin was originally interested in becoming a mathematician. But while he was majoring in math at Washington and Jefferson College, John developed an interest in drama when he appeared in the school play. Although he continued his studies at Johns Hopkins University, another appearance in a school play made him decide to give up math for a life in the theater. While earning a graduate degree in drama at the University of Minnesota, John appeared in dozens of plays, both in school and in community theater.

In the mid-1950s he arrived in New York, and struggled to get acting jobs. He finally had to settle as a theater sweeper for an Off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, which led to a role in the play and to the introduction to his first wife, an actress named Suzanne Hahn. The need to earn extra bucks led John to doing cartoon voices for TV commercials. Then his friend and colleague Tony Randall encouraged him to move to Hollywood, promising that his agent would help him get work. John soon landed roles in such motion pictures as West Side Story and That Touch of Mink, appearing on classic TV series such as The Twilight Zone and Dennis the Menace.

But his first starring role in Tinseltown was on the short-lived TV series I'm Dickens...He's Fenster, in which he played Harry Dickens, a hapless construction worker opposite Marty Ingels' Fenster. This led directly to his most-remembered part, Gomez Addams on "The Addams Family." (Oddly, the producers of that show originally wanted him to play the role of Lurch, the butler.)

After the series ended in 1966, John continued to appear in motion pictures, most notably as twin brothers in the vastly underrated psychedelic satire Candy. Television also provided the actor with plenty of work, offering him guest appearances in such series as The Flying Nun, Gunsmoke, The Doris Day Show, Love American Style, The Partridge Family, The Odd Couple, and Batman, where he succeeded Frank Gorshin in the role of The Riddler.

John became a TV director as well, for episodes of Night Gallery, CHiPs and Holmes and Yoyo. He was also a regular on three post-Addams sitcoms: The Pruitts of Southampton (1967), Operation Petticoat (1977) and Mary (1985), Mary Tyler Moore's short-lived series about a tabloid newspaper.

While his second marriage, to OSCAR® winner Patty Duke ended in divorce, with the birth of their two children, the couple ensured that the Astin Dynasty would continue with the successes of Sean Astin and his brother MacKenzie Astin.