Gomez Addams and Little Ricky Were Both Samwise Gamgee’s Father

With so many real-life married couples populating its worlds — since, you know, those were the only people allowed to smooch — classic TV dynasties comprising the children of those couples abound, but none are so rich as the one consisting solely of Sean Astin. Depending on your specific brand of person, you probably know him best as Samwise Gamgee of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings franchise, Mikey Walsh of The Goonies, Rudy or Bob, the real hero of Stranger Things. 

To Patty Duke, John Astin, Desi Arnaz Jr. and two other guys, however, he’s just “son.” Let me explain.

Like so many women at the time, when Patty Duke — a TV icon in her own right, having starred in The Patty Duke Show as a teen in the ‘60s — became pregnant in 1970, she wasn’t totally sure who her son’s father was. It could have been John Astin, best known for his role as Gomez Addams on The Addams Family; Desi Arnaz Jr., best known for his role as the son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; or music promoter Michael Tell, best known for not being famous.

Duke married Tell not long after she learned she was pregnant, but the marriage was annulled after 13 days, described by Duke as a mistake made in the throes of a mental-health crisis. Hey, we’ve all been there. She then married Astin in 1972, sticking it out for 13 years rather than days, but she believed Arnaz to be Sean’s biological father, which she told him when he was a teenager. Incidentally, Arnaz was only 17 years old at the time of the events that left Duke, then 23, with this belief. 

Not okay, Patty.

Still, Sean Astin developed a loving relationship with Arnaz as bio-dad and -son as well as the stepfather he gained in 1986, drill sergeant Michael Pearce, while remaining close to John Astin. Michael Tell had been all but forgotten in this my-three-dads situation until one of his relatives urged Sean to pursue paternity testing in 1994, which confirmed that Tell was his biological father all along. This revelation might have thrown other families into turmoil, but not this wholesome clan (you know, statutory rape notwithstanding).

“If you want to know who I am, John Astin is my father, Michael Tell is my biological father,” Sean said in 2001, describing Arnaz as “like my godfather; I have such a powerful love bond with this man, he’s a gorgeous human being.” 

He also reports having a “good relationship” with Michael Pearce, while John Astin has described Tell as “a great guy” who “we’ve become friendly” with. “I can call any of them on the phone any time I want to," Sean reiterated. “John, Desi, Mike or Papa Mike — my four dads.” 

Imagine: Things actually working out the way they do on TV.