Lisa Lucas
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Lisa Lucas is a former actress, best known for her touching role of "Addie" in the 1972 Christmas movie, The House Without a Christmas Tree. Lisa was born in 1961 in Fort Huachuca, Arizona.[citation needed] Although she has other acting credits, including Hadley's Rebellion, Dina e Django, and An Unmarried Woman, "House" is what she is best known for The House without a Christmas Tree also stars Jason Robards as her melancholy widowed father, and Mildred Natwick as Grandma. It takes place in a small town in Nebraska in 1946. The main character, Addie Mills, is an energetic and intelligent young school girl. Her paternal grandmother plays a significant role in raising her, as her father (James Mills) remains bitter over the death of Addie's mother, which occurred shortly after Addie's birth. James has refused to allow a Christmas tree in the house all these years despite Addie's pleas. Finally, Addie wins a tree in school (using a guessing technique her father taught her), and brings the tree home. Needless to say, it was not well received by dad, and the story goes from there.
Touching, bitter, wonderful, and painful are the emotions experienced in this low budget but classic story, and many have wondered why it has not been more regularly shown at Christmas time. In one scene, dad is lamenting about why the baby could not have died, instead of the baby's mother. Yet, the viewer knows that there is a tender side of James Mills that is just screaming to get out, and maybe Addie is the only one that can find a way.
Originally shown on CBS in 1972, this movie was actually a very low budget film produced on videotape. This has not detracted from the hoards of fans who have longed to see this converted to a quality DVD, which it finally has and became available in October of 2007. There are numerous reviews of the movie on Amazon.com, as the VHS has been out for quite some time. Lisa Lucas herself thanked all the reviewers by posting a review of her own on the Amazon site, on 30 November 1999:
Sequels were produced, including Thanksgiving Treasure and Addie and the King of Hearts, which never garnered the accolades of the original. Lisa's last film credit was Heart and Souls in 1993.
Lucas currently resides in Delray Beach, Florida where she works as a freelance journalist. Her freelance credits include the New York Post.
