Composer of "Addams Family" theme song dies at 93

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Vic Mizzy, the American film and television composer who wrote the theme song to "The Addams Family," has died at the age of 93, with his death announced on his website.

The Brooklyn-born composer, who was a studio pianist for a radio station before serving with the U.S. Navy during World War Two, had a string of hits in the 1930s and 1940s including "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time," and "With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho."

But he is best known for writing the theme tunes for the TV shows "Green Acres" and "The Addams Family" with its infamous rat-tat-tat-tat opening and punctuated with two finger snaps.

He had to sing the theme himself, overdubbing his voice several times, when the production company refused to pay for singers.

Mizzy owned the publishing rights to "The Addams Family" theme, once telling a CBS interviewer: "Two finger snaps and you live in Bel-Air."

The Los Angeles Times said Mizzy died of heart failure at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles on Saturday.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Sugita Katyal)