She was born Carolyn Sue Jones
April 28, 1930 in Amarillo, Texas. Her father, Julius Jones, walked out on the family when she was five and she would never see him again. During her childhood she suffered from severe asthma which restricted her activity. Carolyn loved reading movie fan magazines and dreamed of becoming an actress. At the age of seventeen she enrolled in The Pasadena Playhouse in California. She married Don Donaldson, a fellow acting student, in 1950. They split up a year later. Unhappy with her appearance she decided to have a nose job. A talent scout saw her on stage and she was offered a contract at Paramount. Carolyn made her film debut in the 1952 drama The Turning Point. Unfortunately Paramount dropped her after only six months. On April 10, 1953 she married actor Aaron Spelling. She landed supporting roles in numerous films including House Of Wax, The Tender Trap, and The Opposite Sex. Carolyn was nominated for an Academy Award in 1957 for her performance in The Bachelor Party. Then she costarred with Elvis Presley in King Creole and with Frank Sinatra in A Hole In The Head. She and Aaron divorced in 1964.

That same year she began playing Morticia Addams on the TV comedy The Addams Family. Her performance as a macabre housewife got rave reviews and made her a television star. Although The Addams Family was cancelled after just two seasons it continued be popular in syndication. Carolyn made her Broadway debut in the 1967 play The Homecoming. On December 19, 1968 she married Herbert Greene, a Broadway conductor. During the 1970s she made guest appearances on Wonder Woman, The Love Boat, and Fantasy Island which was produced by her ex-husband Aaron Spelling. She also wrote a novel titled Twice Upon A Time. In 1977 she reprised her role as Morticia in the TV movie Halloween With The New Addams Family. Carolyn’s marriage to Herbert ended in 1978. Then in 1981 she was diagnosed with colon cancer. She married her fourth husband, actor Peter Bailey-Britton, in the Fall of 1982. Her final acting role was on the soap opera Capitol. Sadly on August 3, 1983 she died from cancer at the age of fifty-three. Carolyn was cremated and her ashes were buried at
Melrose Abbey Memorial Park in
Anaheim, California.