Tim Burton's Wednesday focuses on the titular member of the Addams Family, but most of the other characters from the iconic comic strip also appear in the Netflix show, including Lurch. While not a blood relative of the Addamses, Lurch is as much a part of the family as the rest. The large, Frankensteinian butler is short on speech but visually unforgettable, and it takes a special sort of actor to fill the role. The performer must be physically imposing, have a deep voice, and convey what he's thinking with little facial expression.
In Netflix's Addams Family show, Wednesday, Lurch is played by George Burcea. While reports of his exact height vary, the actor is only a few inches over 6 feet tall. This would seem a problem for the visual comedy of Lurch's role in the Addams home, but Burcea is a good deal taller than the rest of the main cast. He has a low enough voice for the part and is skilled in music and dance, in case that side of Lurch's legacy is explored in the series. Burcea also hails from Romania, which must have benefited the actor as Wednesday was filmed in Bucharest.
What Movies & Shows George Burcea Has Been In Before Wednesday
Before playing Lurch in Netflix's Wednesday, George Burcea appeared in small parts in international film and television productions. These include the Indian action movie Singh Is Bliing, the Italian vampire flick Dampyr, and various works from Burcea's country of Romania, including the Bucharest-set English-language drama Closer to the Moon, starring horror movie regular Vera Farmiga. He can also be seen in Channing Tatum's Romania television parody, Comrade Detective.
Every Other Actor Who Has Played Lurch
Before George Burcea took over the role of Lurch for Tim Burton's Wednesday show, a number of other actors portrayed Charles Addams's hulking manservant in various movies and TV series. Lurch was first depicted on screen in the ABC sitcom The Addams Family, which ran from 1964 to 1966. There he was played famously by the 6-foot-9 American actor Ted Cassidy, who reprised the role in a 1977 Halloween special and for a cameo in the 1960s Batman TV show. He also voiced the same character for an animated guest appearance in a 1972 Scooby-Doo special followed by an Addams Family cartoon spinoff in 1973.
In the live-action theatrical movies The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, Lurch is portrayed by Dutch actor Carel Struycken. He raised the bar for the character's height by standing as tall as 7-foot-3 and was one of only two cast members to return for the straight-to-video sequel Addams Family Reunion. Other actors who've played Lurch include Jim Cummings, who is best known as the voice of Tigger in Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, in a 1990s animated series. Canadian actor and stunt performer John DeSantis, who like Ted Cassidy is 6-foot-9, rounded out that decade's portrayals as Lurch in the sitcom reboot The New Addams Family.
Most recently, before George Burcea's casting in Tim Burton's Wednesday show, Lurch was played by Conrad Vernon in the animated films The Addams Family and The Addams Family 2. Vernon was also one of the directors behind those two adaptations, and he voiced other characters in the two installments, including the Spirit of the House. In the sequel, however, Lurch's singing voice, for a rendition of "I Will Survive," is performed by British composer Dominic Lewis. Lurch has also been played on stage for the Broadway musical The Addams Family and its touring productions by Zachary James, Tom Corbeil, and Laughlin Grace.