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{{Short description|American actor, screenwriter (1931–1968)}} | |||
:''] was also the name of a ] protagonist.'' | |||
{{Similar names|Nicholas Adams (disambiguation){{!}}Nicholas Adams}} | |||
{{Use American English|date=May 2021}} | |||
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}} | |||
{{Infobox person | |||
| name = Nick Adams | |||
| image = Nick Adams The Rebel 1959.JPG | |||
| caption = Adams promo for '']'' (1959) | |||
| birthname = Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock | |||
| birth_date = {{birth date|1931|07|10}} | |||
| birth_place = ], ], ] | |||
| death_date = {{death date and age|1968|02|07|1931|07|10}} | |||
| death_place = ], ], ] | |||
| death_cause = Drug overdose | |||
| years_active = 1952–1968 | |||
| occupation = Actor, screenwriter | |||
| spouse = {{marriage|]|1959}} | |||
| children = 2 | |||
}} | |||
'''Nick Adams''' (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968, born '''Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock'''){{efn|{{langx|uk|Ніколас Алоізіус Адемшок|{{transliteration|uk|ukrainian|Nikolas Aloizius Ademshok}}}}}} was an American ] and television ] and ]. He was noted for his roles in several ] films during the 1950s and 1960s, including '']'' and '']'' along with his starring role in the ] ] '']'' (1959–1961). He also led the cast of several ]ese productions, including '']'', '']'', and ''The Killing Bottle''. | |||
] | |||
'''Nick Adams''' (born '''Nicholas Aloysius Adamschock''' ] ] in ], ] - died ] ] in ], ]) was an ] ] and ]. | |||
Decades after his death from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 36, his widely publicized friendships with ] and ] would stir speculation about both his private life and the circumstances of his death. In an '']'' synopsis for Adams's last film, reviewer Dan Pavlides wrote, "Plagued by personal excesses, he will be remembered just as much for what he could have done in cinema as what he left behind."<ref>Dan Pavlides, Fandango, ''''. Retrieved December 7, 2007.</ref> | |||
==Early life== | |||
The son of a ] ], he is said to have made money as a teenager by hustling ] games and working as a bat boy for a local baseball team. He was later offered a playing position in ] but turned it down because he was uninterested in the low pay. | |||
==Early life and career== | |||
Adams was born as Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock in ] to Catherine (Kutz) and Peter Adamshock, an ] ]. His mother was of Ukrainian descent.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3rmJCgAAQBAJ&q=%22Nick+Adams%22+ukrainian&pg=PA8|title=Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases|first=David K.|last=Frasier|page=8|date=September 11, 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476608075|via=Google Books}}</ref> In 1958, he told columnist ], "We lived in those little company houses — they were terrible. We had to buy from the company store and were always in debt and could never leave." After a mining accident, Adamshocks father quit his job as a miner and the family moved to ].<ref name="crimemagazine.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.crimemagazine.com/nick-adams-his-hollywood-life-and-death|title=Nick Adams: His Hollywood Life and Death|last=Winkler|first=Peter L.|date=October 30, 2009|website=Crimemagazine.com|access-date=May 31, 2014}}</ref> | |||
Adamshock was a successful athlete at ], but failed to get a part in the school play when he was a senior.<ref>]. , '']'', December 25, 1960. Accessed July 23, 2019. "'I remember when I was in Henry Snyder High School in Jersey I was a three letter man but I couldn't make the senior class play.'"</ref> | |||
Adamshock's friends teased him about his acting ambitions. "Everybody thought I was crazy," he recalled. "My father said, 'Nick, get a trade, be a barber or something.' I said, 'But, Pop, I want to do something where I can make lots of money. You can't make lots of money with just a trade.'" After a year of unpaid acting in New York, Adams hitchhiked to Los Angeles.<ref name="crimemagazine.com" /> | |||
==Hollywood career== | ==Hollywood career== | ||
===Struggling actor=== | |||
] | |||
]'', "Who Killed Julie Greer?". Standing, from left: ], Nick Adams, ], ], ], ], ], ], ]. Seated, from left, ] and ].]] | |||
While trying to get a role in the play '']'' in ] he had a brief encounter with ], who advised him to get some training as an actor. Eventually hitchhiking to Los Angeles he worked at various jobs (and was reportedly fired from one as a theater usher after putting his name on display as a publicity stunt). After serving in the US ], following much persistence and creativity Adams appeared in the 1955 film version of '']''. In ] (1955), starring James Dean, ] and ], Adams had a supporting role, reportedly gaining a reputation as both a prankster and a scene-stealer on the set. Following the death of James Dean, Adams became one of the actors used to promote the film for the studio and for a time dated co-star Natalie Wood. | |||
Adams's earliest reported paid acting job in Los Angeles was a stage role at the Las Palmas Theater in a comedy called ''Mr. Big Shot''. Although he was paid about $60 a week, Adams had to pay $175 for membership in ]. He also earned $25 one night at the ] nightclub, filling in for ] who had fallen ill. Eight years later, ] told Adams she recalled writing about him at the time; and he replied by reciting back to her, "Nick Adams, gas station attendant from New Jersey, did an impersonation of Jimmy Cagney and a scene from ''Glass Menagerie''."{{Citation needed |date=October 2023}} | |||
After three years of struggle and optimistic self-promotion, his first film role came in 1951, an uncredited one-liner as a ] delivery boy in ]'s '']'' (1952). This allowed him to join the ], but he was unable to find steady acting work, even when "creatively" claiming he had appeared with Jack Palance in ''The Silver Tassie'' in New York. Undaunted, Adams joined a theater workshop run by ]. In January 1952, Adams enlisted in the ] during the ], serving as an ].<ref name="coast guard"> Together We Served. Retrieved February 22, 2024.</ref> He served until 1955, attaining the rank of ] and was awarded the ] and ].<ref name="coast guard"/> | |||
===Supporting actor=== | |||
About two years later, in June 1954, his ship docked in ] and, after a brash audition for director ] during which Adams did impressions of ] and other celebrities while dressed in his Coast Guard uniform, he took his accumulated leave and appeared as Seaman Reber in the 1955 film version of '']''. Adams then completed his military service, returned to Los Angeles and, at the age of 23, based on his work in ''Mister Roberts'', secured a powerful agent, and signed with ]<ref name="crimemagazine.com" /> | |||
Adams had a small role (as Chick) in '']'' (1955). Also that year Adams played the role of "Bomber" the paper boy in the widely popular film adaptation of '']'' (1955), which was mostly filmed on location in ], and starred ], ], and ]. He was not perceived by casting directors as tall or handsome enough for leading roles, but during the late 1950s, Adams had supporting roles in several successful television productions, including one episode of '']'' (1958) starring ], and films such as '']'' (1956), '']'' (1958), '']'' (1958), and '']'' (1959). | |||
===James Dean=== | |||
Adams initially may have met ] in December 1950 while jitterbugging for a soft drink commercial filmed at ].<ref>This commercial is widely and reliably cited as James Dean's first paid work as an actor, but Adams's participation is only ambiguously confirmed. Many Internet accounts describe it as a ] commercial, but it may have been for ]. A few accounts say Adams was called back (with Dean and another actress) for a second day of interior shots around a jukebox.</ref> Adams spent three years in the Coast Guard between the time this commercial was shot in late 1950 and the start of filming for '']'' in March 1955. Actor ], who played Moose, recalled, "Off the set, Nick, ], and the others would go out together — almost like the gang we portrayed — but Jimmy and ] ... were not a part of that."<ref>Jack Grinnage, American Legends, ''''. Retrieved December 6, 2007.</ref> When production was wrapped, Dean said in another press release, "I now regard Natalie (Wood), Nick, and Sal (Mineo) as co-workers; I regard them as friends ... about the only friends I have in this town. And I hope we all work together again soon."<ref>James Dean, Tribute to a Legend, '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080106191529/http://www.deanfan4ever.com/bio2.htm |date=January 6, 2008 }}''. Retrieved December 6, 2007.</ref> Following Dean's 1955 death in an automobile accident, Adams overdubbed some of Dean's lines for the film '']'' (these are in Jett Rink's speech at the hotel) and dated co-star ]. Adams tried to capitalize on Dean's fame through various publicity stunts, including a claim he was being stalked by a crazed female Dean fan, allowing himself to be photographed at Dean's grave in a contemplative pose, holding flowers, and surrounded by mourning, teenaged female fans along with writing articles and doing interviews about Dean for fan magazines.<ref>], '']'' (University Press of Mississippi, 2004), p.260, He wrote to Dundy saying, "I was a friend of James Dean."</ref><ref>Photograph of Adams at Dean gravesite in Fairmount, Indiana, abt 1956, viewed December 7, 2007</ref><ref>See {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061019224235/http://images.heritagecoin.com/images/HNAI/75/616/616001065o.jpg |date=October 19, 2006 }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927035513/http://images.heritagecoin.com/images/HNAI/75/616/616001065r.jpg |date=September 27, 2007 }}: "I think you're wonderful for thinking so much of Jimmy. I've just written a story about him in the September issue of ''Screen Stars''. ... He was the most wonderful, kindest guy in the whole world. The article about Jimmy and Vampira was not true. Jimmy smoked Viceroys most of the time. I'm enclosing a picture of Jimmy from a scene in ''Giant''. I wish I could send you something of his but I only have a few things of his and I would never part with them ... Jimmy would have liked you very much if he had known you. ... PS: I'm also returning your quarter. I could never accept any money from someone as wonderful as you!"</ref> He also claimed to have developed Dean's affection for fast cars, later telling a reporter, "I became a highway delinquent. I was arrested nine times in one year. They put me on probation, but I kept on racing ... nowhere."{{Citation needed |date=October 2023}} | |||
===Elvis Presley=== | |||
Adams's widely publicized friendship with ] began in 1956 on the set of Presley's film '']'' during the second day of shooting.<ref>], '']'', page 328 "On his second day of filming on the set of ''Love Me Tender'' he met twenty-five-year-old Nick Adams, a Hollywood hustler who had originally brazened his way into the cast of '']'' two years before by doing impressions of the star, Jimmy Cagney, for director John Ford."</ref> Presley had admired James Dean, and when the singer arrived in Hollywood, he was encouraged by studio executives to be seen with some of the "hip" new young actors there. Meanwhile, his manager ] was worried that Elvis' new Hollywood acquaintances might influence Presley and even tell him what they were paying their managers and agents (a fraction of what Presley was paying Parker). ] called Parker a "master manipulator" who used Nick Adams and others in the entourage (including Parker's own brother-in-law ]) to counter possible subversion against him and control Elvis' movements. She later wrote a scathing characterization of Adams: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
... Brash struggling young actor whose main scheme to further his career was to hitch his wagon to a star, the first being James Dean, about whose friendship he was noisily boastful ... this made it easy for Parker to suggest that Nick be invited to join Elvis' growing entourage of paid companions, and for Nick to accept ... following Adams' hiring, there appeared a newspaper item stating that Nick and Parker were writing a book on Elvis together.<ref>Elaine Dundy, '']'' (1985) p. 250</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Dundy also wrote, "Of all Elvis' new friends, Nick Adams, by background and temperament the most insecure, was also his closest."<ref>Elaine Dundy, ''Elvis and Gladys'', p. 250.</ref> Adams was ]'s roommate during this period, and the three reportedly socialized together, with Presley "hanging out more and more with Nick and his friends" and glad his manager "liked Nick".<ref>Guralnick, ''Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley'', pp. 336, 339.</ref><ref>See {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061008222528/http://www.elvispresleynews.com/RedWest01.html |date=October 8, 2006 }}. ] member ] later wrote Adams "was a friend of Elvis's and I went to Hollywood and met him. He helped me get into the first door and then ] who did '']'' and '']'', we played football every Sunday when Elvis got back and all those people would come out ..."</ref><ref>Guralnick, ''Last Train to Memphis'', pp. 339–340.</ref> Decades later, ] recalled Adams often met Presley backstage or at ], where Elvis often asked Adams "to stay over on nights": "He and Elvis would go motorcycle riding late at night and stay up until all hours talking about the pain of celebrity" and enjoying prescription drugs.<ref>Her account is supported by Robert W. Dye, ''The Mid-south Fair, (Tn): Celebrating 150 Years'' (2006), p.114. After Presley completed filming he was booked to perform a large outdoor show in ], where he "arrived on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle with Nick Adams."</ref> | |||
Almost 40 years later, writer ] wrote that Presley found it "good running around with Nick ... there was always something happening, and the hotel suite was like a private clubhouse where you needed to know the secret password to get in and he got to change the password every day."<ref>Guralnick, ''Last Train to Memphis'', p. 410.</ref> Presley's girlfriend June Juanico complained the singer was always talking about his friend Adams and James Dean.<ref name=adams>Cited in Guralnick, ''Last Train to Memphis'', pp. 347–348. "He started telling her all about Nick and Nick's friends and ], but she didn't want to hear."</ref> She also was upset that Adams had started inviting himself to see Elvis, and Juanico felt that she was trying to compete for Elvis' attention. Adams would talk often about ] to Elvis, constantly discussing her figure and her beauty, something else that caused Juanico to feel that she would soon lose Elvis to the glitz of Hollywood.<ref name=adams /> Presley's own mother even commented about Adams, "He sure is a pushy little fellow".<ref name=adams /> | |||
As with Dean, Adams capitalized on his association with Presley, publishing an account of their friendship in May 1957.<ref>Guralnick, ''Last Train to Memphis'', pp. 347–348.</ref> In August 1958, after the death of Elvis's mother Gladys, Parker wrote in a letter, "Nicky {{sic|Adams}} came out to be with Elvis last Week {{sic|which}} was so very kind of him to be there with his friend."<ref>See Trude Forsher Archive, Letter of Authenticity from Mrs. Forsher's son. From 1956–1961, Trude Forsher was Elvis Presley's and Colonel Tom Parker's personal secretary. Her vast collection of Elvis memorabilia remained with her family for almost 50 years.</ref> | |||
"The Rebel and the King"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allysonadams.com/rebelandtheking|title=The Rebel & The King|website=Allyson Adams}}</ref> by Nick Adams is a first-person account written by Adams about his friendship with Presley. The manuscript was written in 1956 by Nick during Presley's eight days in Memphis when the singer returned home for his big Tupelo homecoming. The manuscript was discovered 45 years later by Adams's daughter and initially published in 2012.<ref>Johnson, Brett (2012). reprint by '']'' (November 3, 2012) of original article published in ''Ventura County Star.'' Retrieved April 21, 2017.</ref> | |||
===''The Rebel''=== | |||
] | |||
In 1959, Adams starred in the ABC series '']'' playing the character Johnny Yuma, a wandering, ex-Confederate, journal-keeping, sawed-off shotgun toting "trouble-shooter" in the old American west. He is credited as a co-creator of ''The Rebel'', but he had no role in writing the pilot or any of the series' episodes. Adams had asked his friend ] to write the pilot as a starring vehicle for him. The series' only recurring character, publicized as a "Reconstruction beatnik", was played by Adams.<ref>Television Obscurities, ''{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}'', October 14, 2003. Retrieved December 5, 2007.</ref> He reportedly consulted with John Wayne for tips on how to play the role. Adams wanted Presley to sing the theme song for ''The Rebel'', but the show's producer wanted ]. Guest stars appearing on the series during its two-year run included ], ], ], ], and ]. A total of 76 half-hour episodes were filmed before the series was cancelled in 1961. Reruns were syndicated for several years. Adams went back to TV and film work, along with a role in the short-lived but critically successful television series '']''. | |||
===''Twilight of Honor''=== | |||
Adams was nominated for an ] for his performance as an unlikable murder suspect in the film '']'' (1963), which featured the film debuts of both ] and ]. He campaigned heavily for the award, spending over $8,000 on ads in trade magazines, but many of his strongest scenes had been cut from the movie{{Citation needed|date=October 2019}}, and he lost to ]. | |||
===Toho Studios and career decline=== | |||
In 1964, Adams had a leading role opposite ] in an episode ("]") of '']''. A review of this episode written over three decades later would characterize him as an "underrated actor".<ref name="outer">davidjschow.com, '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227101046/http://www.davidjschow.com/limits/ol_episodes2.html#fun |date=February 27, 2008 }}'', episode reviews written 1998–2001. Retrieved March 6, 2008.</ref> By this time Adams's career was stalling. He had high hopes his co-starring performance with ] in '']'' (1964) would be critically acclaimed, but the project had low production values, and both critics and audiences rejected the film. Also that year, Adams guest-starred in an episode of the short-lived CBS drama '']''. | |||
In 1965, after publicly insisting he would never work in films produced outside the U.S., Adams began accepting parts in Japanese ] monster movies (]). He landed major roles in two science fiction epics from ] in ]. His first Japanese movie was '']'', in which he played Dr. James Bowen, a radiologist working in Hiroshima who encounters a new incarnation of the Frankenstein monster. Adams next starred in the sixth ] film, '']'' (known in the U.S. as ''Monster Zero''), in which he played Astronaut Glenn, journeying to the newly discovered Planet X. In both films, his character had a love interest with characters portrayed by actress ]. On the set of ''Monster Zero'', Adams and co-star ] (who played the villainous Controller of Planet X) reportedly got along well and played jokes on each other.<ref>Adams once asked Tsuchiya how to say "good morning" in Japanese, but he instead taught Adams how to say "I'm hungry" (Adams was on a strict diet at the time and nearly fainted during filming). Later, when shooting a scene, Adams got even by saying to Tsuchiya in Japanese, "You're overacting!" Before leaving Toho, Adams wanted a picture of Tsuchiya, who at first thought he was just flattering him, but he said he really wanted something to remember him by. Before leaving Toho, Adams gave one of his formal outfits to ] (who co-starred in ''Monster Zero'' as the meek inventor Tetsuo Torî) because, according to Kubo, "the suit fit me."</ref> Adams made three films in Japan between 1965 and 1966. Adams' final film for Toho was the final film in the "International Secret Police" Series, which began with the film "Key of Keys" ] (国際秘密警察 鍵の鍵, International Secret Police: Key of Keys), which was the basis for the Woody Allen scripted spoof '']'' (1966). The English title for this final film was "The Killing Bottle",<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061875/ | title=The Killing Bottle (1967) - IMDb | website=] }}</ref> Toho shot the film in Japanese with Adams doing his lines in English as in the previous films. An English dub was commissioned by Henry G. Saperstein, and produced by Titra Studios. This English version was never released in the U.S., but there were rumors of the English dub being released in Yugoslavia. The most interesting aspect of this film, is that Adams actually performed his own fights scenes using Kenpo, a style he had been learning under Senior Grand Master Ed Parker in the States. Previous to this time, he also co-starred with ] in '']'' (1965), a Gothic horror–sci fi movie filmed in England. | |||
===1967: TV episodes and low-budget films=== | |||
]'' (1968), a photo taken shortly before his death.]] | |||
In early 1967, ] released '']'', a Civil War drama told from a southern perspective with Adams in the role of a cruel Union army sergeant. Adams guest-starred in five episodes of four TV series that year, including an installment of his friend ]'s '']'', an appearance in '']'' and two episodes of '']'' (a short-lived western which also had an ex-Confederate theme). Throughout 1967 and early 1968, he also worked in three low-budget films. One of these was '']'' (1968) which has been described as "rarely seen, and utterly dreadful."<ref name="Westfahl">], the SciFi site, ''''. Retrieved December 5, 2007.</ref> Adams's costume for this movie included an off-the-shelf motorcycle helmet. Reacting to ''Mission Mars'' over 30 years later, SciFi reviewer ] wrote, "The only quality that Adams could persuasively project on film was a desperate desire to be popular, to be liked ... which helps to explain why Adams got his foot in many doors."<ref name="Westfahl" /> Adams's last U.S. production was a movie filmed in Iowa called '']''. His last film appearance was in the little-seen Spanish-language western '']'', filmed in Mexico City, Mexico. | |||
==Marriage and children== | |||
Adams made another appearance in the widely popular film adaptation of ] (1955) which was mostly filmed on location in ]. He was not perceived by casting directors as tall or handsome enough for leading roles but during the late 1950s he had supporting roles in several successful films. | |||
] pose for a publicity photo taken shortly after their marriage]] | |||
Adams married former child actress ] in 1959.<ref name=tuscaloosa>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19661129&id=LQAdAAAAIBAJ&pg=5030,5225226|title=Actor Nick Adams Sued For Divorce|date=November 29, 1966|work=The Tuscaloosa News|page=16|access-date=May 31, 2014}}</ref> Nugent had appeared in an episode of ''The Rebel''. They had two children, Allyson and Jeb Stuart Adams.<ref name="lawrence">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19680208&id=DLgrAAAAIBAJ&pg=7184,3997770|title=Actor Nick Adams Dies at His Home of Natural Causes|date=February 8, 1968|work=Lawrence Journal-World|page=12|access-date=May 31, 2014}}</ref> Jeb was a child actor, then gave up acting, and is now a successful realtor in Ventura County, California. Allyson was a film director, but is now a costume designer and activist.{{Citation needed |date=July 2022}} | |||
Sometimes acrimonious marital problems reportedly interfered with his ability to get lucrative acting parts after 1963. While promoting ''Young Dillinger'' during a television appearance on '']'' in early 1965, Adams "shocked" the viewing audience with an announcement that he was leaving his wife, seemingly without telling her first. The couple publicly announced a reconciliation a week later, but his career and personal life following this episode have been characterized as a "tragic freefall".<ref name="crimemagazine.com" /> | |||
Nick Adams' friendship with ], widely publicized at the time, began in 1956. In his book '']'', American popular music ] ] says on page 328 about Elvis Presley: "On his second day of filming on the set of '']'' he met twenty-five-year-old Nick Adams, a Hollywood hustler who had originally brazened his way into the cast of '']'' two years before by doing impressions of the star, Jimmy Cagney, for director John Ford." On page 330 Guralnick says that at the time Nick Adams was ] roomate and when Presley's filming sessions were over the three of them hung out together. | |||
Adams and actress ] may have had a short affair while he was working in Japan. "That's one of the reasons my parents were divorced," his daughter, playwright ], later said. "My dad had a penchant for becoming infatuated with his leading ladies. It was a way for him to take on the role he was playing at the time."<ref>Steve Ryfle, ''Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G."'', p.130.</ref> Rumors of a romance between the two were common occurrence until Mizuno denied it during an interview in 1996. | |||
In her ] book "'']''" ] wrote that when Presley arrived in Hollywood to make his first film in 1956 he was encouraged by studio executives to be seen with some of the "hip" new young actors there. However, ] became concerned Elvis' new Hollywood acquaintances might influence his rising superstar and even tell Presley what they were paying for manager/agent's fees (which was usually a fraction of what Parker was getting). Dundy wrote (on p. 250) that one of the actors Presley became friends with was Nick Adams who in the author's words was a: | |||
: ''...brash struggling young actor whose main scheme to further his career was to hitch his wagon to a star, the first being James Dean, about whose friendship he was noisily boastful... this made it easy for Parker to suggest that Nick be invited to join Elvis' growing entourage of paid companions, and for Nick to accept... following Adams' hiring, there appeared a newspaper item stating that Nick and Parker were writing a book on Elvis together.'' | |||
By July 1965, Adams and Nugent were legally separated; Nugent filed for divorce in September. The following month, while Adams was in Japan, Nugent was granted a divorce and custody of the children. In January 1966, Adams and Nugent announced another reconciliation on ''Bill John's Hollywood Star Notebook'', a local television show. However, in November 1966, Nugent resumed the divorce proceedings and obtained a restraining order against him, alleging Adams was "prone to fits of temper", and in an affidavit, charged he had "choked her, struck her and threatened to kill her during the past few weeks."<ref name=tuscaloosa /> On January 20, 1967, Adams was waiting for a court hearing to start when he was served with a $110,000 defamation suit by Nugent's boyfriend, ], who later married Nugent. Nevertheless, nine days later he was granted temporary custody of the children. His son Jeb Adams later recalled, "He saw it as a competition, basically, more than anything of getting custody of us. But, a matter of a week or two later, he gave us back to my mom." Nugent later regained legal custody of the children.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} | |||
Dundy called Colonel Parker a master manipulator who used Nick Adams and others in the entourage (including Parker's own brother-in-law Bitsy Mott) to counter possible subversion against him and keep a check on Elvis' movements. | |||
==Death== | |||
In 1959, Nick Adams starred in the ] ''The Rebel'', playing the character Johnny Yuma, an ex-confederate, journal-keeping "trouble-shooter" in the old American west, which ran on ]. Along with ] and others Adams also wrote scripts for the show. After the series was cancelled in 1961 Adams went back to film work, along with a role in the short-lived television series ]. | |||
] | |||
After finishing ''Los Asesinos'' (1968), produced by ] and filmed in Mexico, Adams bought a plane ticket with his own money and flew to ], ], to co-star with ] in a science fiction/horror movie called ''Murder in the Third Dimension'', but when he got there, he found the project had been dropped. ], who had worked with him 13 years earlier on the hit film '']'' and was living in Italy, encountered a thoroughly demoralized Adams in a Rome bar.<ref>Susan Strasberg, ''Bittersweet''</ref> | |||
On the night of February 7, 1968, his lawyer and friend, ex-] officer Ervin Roeder, drove to the actor's house at 2126 El Roble Lane in ] to check on him after a missed dinner appointment. Seeing a light on and his car in the garage, Roeder broke through a window and discovered Adams in his upstairs bedroom, slumped dead against a wall. | |||
], ], ], ], '''Nick Adams''', ], ] on the set of '']'' (1965)]] | |||
He was nominated for an ] for his performance in the film '']'' (1963). He campaigned heavily for the award, spending over $8,000 on ads in trade magazines but many of his strongest scenes had been cut from the movie and he lost to ]. | |||
During the autopsy Dr. ] found enough ], sedatives and other drugs in the body "to cause instant unconsciousness." The death certificate lists "paraldehyde and ] ]" as the immediate cause of death, along with the notation "accident; ]; undetermined." During the 1960s, drug interaction warnings were not so prominent as they later would be, and the ] has subsequently warned these two types of drugs should never be taken together. | |||
By 1964 his career seems to have stalled. He had high hopes his performance in '']'' (with ]) would be critically acclaimed but the project had low production values and both critics and audiences rejected the film. Adams took bit parts in various low budget Japanese science-fiction movies (including a role as "astronaut Glenn" in 1965's ''Monster Zero'') but these were not commercial or critical successes. | |||
The death of Nick Adams has been cited in articles and books about Hollywood's unsolved mysteries along with speculation by a few of his acquaintances that he was murdered (according to author David Kulczyk, Adams was apparently planning to write a tell-all book revealing many sexual secrets of Hollywood names) and claims no trace of paraldehyde (a liquid ] often given to alcoholics at the time and one of two drugs attributed to his death) was ever found in his home. However, Adams's brother Andrew had become a medical doctor and prescribed the sedative to him. Moreover, a story in the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported stoppered bottles with prescription labels were found in the medicine cabinet near the upstairs bedroom where Adams's body was discovered. Through the years, his children offered speculation ranging from murder to accidental death, the latter perhaps caused by Roeder while trying to calm the actor's nerves with an unintentionally lethal combination of alcohol and prescription drugs (although the autopsy found no alcohol in Adams's blood).<ref>Steve Ryfle, ''Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G."'', p.130</ref> Actor ], Adams's best friend, consistently maintained that the death was accidental. | |||
==Marriage, divorce and death== | |||
] | |||
His marriage to former child actor ], who had also appeared in an episode of ''The Rebel'', produced two children (Allyson Lee Adams in 1960 and Jeb Stewart Adams in 1962, both of whom later pursued acting careers). An acrimonious and expensive divorce reportedly interfered with his ability to get lucrative acting parts after 1963. | |||
Carol Adams is listed as Adams's spouse on his death certificate, evidence the divorce had not become final when the actor died. She and the children were living only a few blocks from his recently-rented house on El Roble Lane. | |||
Adams' career seemed to be on the verge of an upswing when on the night of Feb 7, 1968 his lawyer and friend Erwin Roeder drove to the actor's house at 2126 El Roble Lane in Beverly Hills to check on him after a missed dinner appointment. Seeing a light on and his car in the garage Roeder broke through a window and discovered Adams in his upstairs bedroom, slumped against a wall and wearing a shirt, blue jeans and boots, his eyes open in a blank stare, dead. He was 36. During the autopsy Dr. ] found enough ], sedatives and other drugs in the body "to cause instant unconsciousness." The death certificate lists "paraldehyde and ] ]" as the immediate cause of ], with the notation '']; ]; undetermined''. His remains were buried in ], Pennsylvania. | |||
Adams's remains were interred at Saints Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in ]. The backside of his gravestone, which bears a silhouette of Adams wearing the Civil War-era cap from his television series, is inscribed ''Nick Adams — The Rebel — Actor of Hollywood Screens''. | |||
==Rumors== | |||
Adams' death at a young age, his claims to a friendship with James Dean (a cultural icon who also died tragically young), his ] and reported drug consumption have made his private life the subject of various ] reports and rumours even decades later. | |||
==Later published speculation== | |||
Adams' death has been cited in articles and books on Hollywood's unsolved mysteries along with allegations that Adams was ]ed, including claims that no trace of the liquid ] ] (one of two drugs Adams died from) was ever found in his home, but a story in The ] reported that stoppered bottles with ] labels were found in the medicine cabinet near the upstairs bedroom where Adams' body was discovered. Actor ] (his best friend) has consistently maintained Adams' death was accidental. | |||
===Sexuality=== | |||
Decades later, Adams's highly publicized life and death at a young age, his friendships with cultural icons such as ] and ], and his reported drug consumption made his private life the subject of many reports and assertions by some writers who have claimed Adams may have been ] or ]. One of the earliest published mentions on this overall topic was made by gossip columnist ] in her 1974 autobiography, in which she made no assertion Adams was homosexual or bisexual but claimed Adams had told her, along with a "whole roomful of people," that he wasn't making it because no one in Hollywood's upper stratosphere would accept his wife. Barrett called it "untrue. She was one of the most refreshing wives in the entire community" and went on to say Adams "had become the companion to a group of salacious homosexuals" who flattered the actor, which affected his judgment and caused him to blame Carol.<ref>Barret, ''Miss Rona'' (1974)</ref> Hollywood biographer ] claimed ] (a gay gossip columnist for '']'' from 1951 to 1966) "would put the make on the most prominent young actors, including ], ], ], Nick Adams, and ]."<ref>See Val Holley, ''Mike Connolly and the Manly Art of Hollywood Gossip'' (2003), p. 22.</ref> According to ''American Film'' (1986), "Nick Adams, who was ...gay, was the butt of anti-gay humor in '']''".<ref>See ''American Film'', published by the American Film Institute, 1986, p. 48.</ref> | |||
Some writers later called Adams a "Hollywood hustler" or a "street hustler".<ref>Leigh W. Rutledge, ''The Gay Book of Lists'' (2003), p. 27. Rutledge writes that James Dean "claimed to have worked, with his friend Nick Adams, as a street hustler after he first arrived in Hollywood."</ref> One journalist also refers to Adams as a "pool hustler" who made money in pool halls when he was a teenager in New Jersey and later while struggling to make ends meet during his early years in Hollywood.<ref>cybersleuths.com, Bill Kelly, '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071216080703/http://www.cybersleuths.com/features/features2a.html |date=December 16, 2007 }}'', retrieved December 30, 2007, Kelly notes Adams "... grew up in the smoky pool halls of Jersey City" and later in Hollywood "... fell back on his old skills as a pool hustler, his means of survival in Jersey City."</ref> | |||
==Quotes== | |||
''I dreamed all my life of being a movie star. Movies were my life. You had to have an escape when you were raised in a basement. I saw all the James Cagney, Humphery Bogart and John Garfield pictures. Odds against the world... that was my meat.'' | |||
===Friendship with Dean and Presley=== | |||
''I will never make a picture abroad.'' (1963, two years before he started doing so) | |||
It is uncertain whether James Dean and Adams met before his service in the United States Coast Guard (1952–1955) and subsequent role in ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955). In his 1986 gossip book about gay Hollywood, ''Conversations with My Elders'', ] claimed actor ] told him in 1972, "I didn't hear it from Jimmy (James Dean), who was sort of awesome to me when we did Rebel, but Nick told me they had a big affair." According to Presley biographer ], "Nick Adams ingratiated himself with James Dean precisely as he would do a year or so later with Elvis. He offered himself to the shy, emotionally contorted and rebellious Dean, as a friend, a guide, a boon companion, a homosexual lover – whatever role or service Dean required."<ref>Albert Goldman, ''Elvis'' (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), p. 215.</ref> Journalist, screenwriter and author of books about Hollywood, ] wrote that "James Dean was bisexual, as were Nick Adams and Sal Mineo."<ref>John Gregory Dunne, ''Regards: The Selected Nonfiction of John Gregory Dunne'' (2005), p.242.</ref> According to Eric Braun, "Elvis was attracted by Adams' outgoing personality and the young actors caused quite a stir, cruising round Los Angeles with ], ] and others on their Hondas."<ref>See Eric Braun, ''Frightening the Horses: Gay Icons of the Cinema'' (2002), p.186.</ref> In 2005, Byron Raphael and Presley biographer ] wrote that Adams may have "swung both ways" like "Adams's good pal (and Elvis's idol) James Dean. Tongues wagged that Elvis and Adams were getting it on."<ref>Byron Raphael with ], "In Bed with Elvis", ''Playboy'', November 2005, Vol. 52, Iss. 11.</ref> | |||
===Studio-arranged dates=== | |||
==Trivia== | |||
Adams regularly dated actresses with whom he made movies. During the mid-1950s, photographs of him with actress ] were widely publicized in fan magazines. ''Modern Screen'' wrote at the time "their relationship has been mostly for fun" and they shared "a tendency toward moodiness and unpredictability." The magazine also reported they had given joint interviews "in which they admitted they adored each other" and "they even came terribly close to getting married" in Las Vegas. The same article also remarked that on one of their trips they "posed for innumerable publicity photographs — that was the real reason for the trip — " and "Right now, both Nick and Natalie are inclined to deny the whole Las Vegas episode." In his 2004 biography ''Natalie Wood: A Life'' biographer and screenwriter ] wrote in passing, Wood's "first studio-arranged date with a gay or bisexual actor had been with Nick Adams."<ref>Gavin Lambert, ''Natalie Wood: A Life'' (2004) p. 199</ref> In his biography of gay Hollywood agent ], Robert Hofler deals with the rise of the studio star system, in which several actors spent time on the homosexual casting couch and dated girls or even entered into sham marriages in order to cover their homosexuality. "In the Henry Willson date pool," the author says, "Nick Adams was one client, among many, who glommed on to Natalie Wood to get his picture taken."<ref>See Robert Hofler, ''The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson'' (2005), p.205.</ref> ] cites actor ], one of the gang members in '']'', about Nick Adams's and ]'s reasons "for getting close to Natalie. 'I remember being in Dennis' dressing room with Nick and Natalie ... I don't know which one of them said this — it was Nick or Dennis — but he said, "We're gonna hang on to her bra straps." Meaning up the career ladder.' Natalie's tutor, who knew Hopper and Adams off set, said, 'Both of those two guys were all over her ... because they could see that this movie was going to be a big thing for Natalie ... they were game for anything in order to be noticed and to get ahead in the business.' "<ref>Suzanne Finstad, ''Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood'', p.190.</ref> | |||
*Adams, who had a talent for voice impersonations, overdubbed some of James Dean's lines for the film '']'' after Dean died during production. | |||
Actress ] relates: "When Nick and I went out, it was a casual thing —no great love or anything like that ... I thought he was very troubled ... You could feel he was troubled. It was the manner he had —that was the way he was in real life, always brooding ... When we went out, it was never on his motorcycle! That's one trick he couldn't pull on me. We always went in a car!"<ref>Michael G. Fitzgerald and Boyd Magers, ''Ladies of the Western: Interviews with Fifty-One More Actresses from the Silent Era to the Television Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s'' (2002), p.266.</ref> | |||
* Following Dean's death, Adam's tried to capitalize on his friend's fame through various publicity stunts, including a claim he was being stalked by a crazed female Dean fan. He also claimed to have developed Dean's affection for fast cars, later telling a reporter, "I became a highway delinquent. I was arrested nine times in one year. They put me on probation, but I kept on racing... nowhere." However, the offers for light comedy roles continued. | |||
===Lack of confirmation=== | |||
*The theme song for ''The Rebel'' was recorded by ], who made it a hit. | |||
Because of morality clauses in studio contracts, along with practical marketing concerns, most homosexual actors during the 1950s and 1960s were forced to be discreet about their sexuality. However, Adams was known in Hollywood for embellishing and inventing stories about his show business experiences and long tried to capitalize on his associations with James Dean and Elvis Presley. In a brief biographical article, journalist Bill Kelly wrote Adams "became James Dean's closest pal, although Nick was ] and Dean was bisexual."<ref>Bill Kelly, '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071216080703/http://www.cybersleuths.com/features/features2a.html |date=December 16, 2007 }}'', retrieved December 5, 2007, please note however, although Kelly knew Adams, this article contains several verifiable errors of fact.</ref> Moreover, there are neither court documents (such as from the long and drawn-out divorce and child custody proceedings between him and his wife), nor personal letters from Adams, nor directly attributable statements by any alleged male lovers, to support the assertions. | |||
==Filmography== | |||
*Adams is reported to have consulted with ] for tips on how to play his role in ''The Rebel''. | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
|+ Film | |||
|- | |||
! Year | |||
! Title | |||
! Role | |||
! class="unsortable" | Notes | |||
|- | |||
| 1952 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Western Union boy | |||
| Uncredited | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=5 | 1955 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| ] | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Reber | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Chick | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Bomber | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Bell Boy | |||
| Uncredited | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=4 | 1956 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Gary Nolan | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Phil Davis | |||
| Alternative title: ''White Nightmare'' | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Ridge | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Jett Rink | |||
| Voice, Uncredited | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=2 | 1957 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Tracy Mitchell | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Hot-Dog Stand Customer | |||
| Uncredited | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=3 | 1958 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| C.K. Judd | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Barney Kovac | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Pvt. Benjamin B. Whitledge | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=2 | 1959 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| John Gilbert "Jack" Graham | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Tony Walters | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=3 | 1962 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Homer Janeczek | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Dr. Sid Lackland | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=2 | 1963 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Pvt. V.R. Hackett | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Ben Brown | |||
| Alternative title: ''The Charge is Murder''<br />Nominated for the ] | |||
|- | |||
| 1964 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Tarragoo | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=4 | 1965 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| ] | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Dr. James Bowen | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Stephen Reinhart | |||
| Alternative titles: ''Monster of Terror''<br />''The House at the End of the World'' | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Astronaut Glenn | |||
| Alternative titles: ''Monster Zero''<br />''Godzilla vs. Monster Zero'' | |||
|- | |||
| 1966 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| KEB agent | |||
| Uncredited | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=2 | 1967 | |||
| ''The Killing Bottle'' | |||
| John Carter | |||
| Alternative titles: ''International Secret Police: Driven to the Wall ''<br />''Zettai zatsumi'' | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Sgt. Gregg | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=3 | 1968 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Ace Jones | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Nick Grant | |||
| | |||
|- | |||
| ''Los Asesinos'' | |||
| Shannon | |||
| (final film role) | |||
|} | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
*He is one of four actors typically named in connection with the ], a widely repeated ]. | |||
|+ Television | |||
|- | |||
! Year | |||
! Title | |||
! Role | |||
! class="unsortable" | Notes | |||
|- | |||
| 1956 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Augie | |||
| Episode: "Sock and Augie" | |||
|- | |||
| 1957 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Sandy | |||
| Episode: "The Troublemakers" | |||
|- | |||
| 1958 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Mickey Houseman | |||
| Episode: "Juvenile Jacket" | |||
|- | |||
| 1958 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Andy Martin | |||
| Episode: "The Martin Poster" | |||
|- | |||
| 1958 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| John Hartman, Jr. | |||
| Episode: "Twelve Guns" | |||
|- | |||
| 1958 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Chip Davidson | |||
| Episode: "Out of Control" | |||
|- | |||
| 1958 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Sgt. Korman | |||
| Episode: "Operation Crash Landing" | |||
|- | |||
| 1958–1959 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Lynn Parsons<br />George Pelletti | |||
| 2 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1958–1959 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Various roles | |||
| 3 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1958–1961 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Antonio "Tonio"<br />Sam Upton | |||
| 2 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1959 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Duke Alexis | |||
| Episode: "The Night the Russians Landed" | |||
|- | |||
| 1959 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Ira Watkins | |||
| Episode: "The Tired Gun" | |||
|- | |||
| 1959 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| | |||
| Episode: "Portrait" | |||
|- | |||
| 1959–1961 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Johnny Yuma | |||
| 76 episodes<br />Wrote 38 episodes, credited as creator | |||
|- | |||
| 1961–1962 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Nick Phillips<br />George Townsend | |||
| 2 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1961–1962 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Paul Madsen<br />Richard Martin | |||
| 2 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1962 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Weiler aka "Kid" | |||
| Episode: "A Chant of Silence" | |||
|- | |||
| 1962 | |||
| ']' | |||
| Singer Snooky Bradford | |||
| Episode: The Big Date | |||
|- | |||
| 1962–1963 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Nick Alexander | |||
| 18 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1963 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Max Dent | |||
| Episode: "By His Own Verdict" | |||
|- | |||
| 1963–1965 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Various roles | |||
| 5 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1963–1967 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Pvt. Mick Hellar<br />Cpl. Marty Roberts | |||
| 2 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1964 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Ronnie Blake | |||
| Episode: "A Roll of the Dice" | |||
|- | |||
| 1964 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Mike Benson | |||
| Episode: "Fun and Games" | |||
|- | |||
| 1964 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Roger | |||
| Episode: "How Much for a Prince?" | |||
|- | |||
| 1964 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Jason Kemp | |||
| Episode: "Turn Back the Clock" | |||
|- | |||
| 1964 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Corporal Dasovik | |||
| Episode: "Corporal Dasovik" | |||
|- | |||
| 1965 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Orin Reid | |||
| Episode: "Three Li'l Lambs" | |||
|- | |||
| 1966–1968 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Prince/Sheriff Dave Cord | |||
| Episode/S3 E18 | |||
|- | |||
| 1967 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Sergeant Gregg | |||
| 2 episodes | |||
|- | |||
| 1967 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Dave | |||
| Episode: "Gun Bound" | |||
|- | |||
| 1967 | |||
| '']'' | |||
| Apache Kid | |||
| 2 episodes | |||
|- | |||
|} | |||
==Notes and references== | |||
==Partial Filmography== | |||
{{Notelist}} | |||
*'']'' (1955) | |||
{{Reflist|30em}} | |||
*'']'' (1955) | |||
* {{citation | last = Stern | first = Keith | chapter = Nick Adams| title = Queers in History | publisher = BenBella Books, Inc.; Dallas, Texas | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-1-933771-87-8}} | |||
*'']'' (1955) | |||
*'']'' (1956) | |||
*'']'' (1958) | |||
*'']'' (1959) | |||
*'']'' (1963) | |||
*'']'' (1964) | |||
*'']'' (1965) | |||
*'']'' (1965) | |||
*'']'' (1965) | |||
*'']'' (1965) | |||
*'']'' (1968) | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
{{Portal|Biography|United States}} | |||
*{{imdb name|id=0011244|name=Nick Adams}} | |||
{{commons category|Nick Adams (actor)}} | |||
*{{IMDb name|0011244|Nick Adams}} | |||
*, ''Crime Magazine'', August 15, 2003. | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
==External images== | |||
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Latest revision as of 18:29, 22 December 2024
American actor, screenwriter (1931–1968) For other people with similar names, see Nicholas Adams.
Nick Adams | |
---|---|
Adams promo for The Rebel (1959) | |
Born | Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock (1931-07-10)July 10, 1931 Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, United States |
Died | February 7, 1968(1968-02-07) (aged 36) Beverly Hills, California, United States |
Cause of death | Drug overdose |
Occupation(s) | Actor, screenwriter |
Years active | 1952–1968 |
Spouse |
Carol Nugent (m. 1959) |
Children | 2 |
Nick Adams (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968, born Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock) was an American film and television actor and screenwriter. He was noted for his roles in several Hollywood films during the 1950s and 1960s, including Rebel Without a Cause and Giant along with his starring role in the ABC television series The Rebel (1959–1961). He also led the cast of several Japanese productions, including Frankenstein Conquers the World, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and The Killing Bottle.
Decades after his death from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 36, his widely publicized friendships with James Dean and Elvis Presley would stir speculation about both his private life and the circumstances of his death. In an AllMovie synopsis for Adams's last film, reviewer Dan Pavlides wrote, "Plagued by personal excesses, he will be remembered just as much for what he could have done in cinema as what he left behind."
Early life and career
Adams was born as Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania to Catherine (Kutz) and Peter Adamshock, an anthracite coal miner. His mother was of Ukrainian descent. In 1958, he told columnist Hedda Hopper, "We lived in those little company houses — they were terrible. We had to buy from the company store and were always in debt and could never leave." After a mining accident, Adamshocks father quit his job as a miner and the family moved to Jersey City.
Adamshock was a successful athlete at Henry Snyder High School, but failed to get a part in the school play when he was a senior.
Adamshock's friends teased him about his acting ambitions. "Everybody thought I was crazy," he recalled. "My father said, 'Nick, get a trade, be a barber or something.' I said, 'But, Pop, I want to do something where I can make lots of money. You can't make lots of money with just a trade.'" After a year of unpaid acting in New York, Adams hitchhiked to Los Angeles.
Hollywood career
Struggling actor
Adams's earliest reported paid acting job in Los Angeles was a stage role at the Las Palmas Theater in a comedy called Mr. Big Shot. Although he was paid about $60 a week, Adams had to pay $175 for membership in Actors' Equity Association. He also earned $25 one night at the Mocambo nightclub, filling in for Pearl Bailey who had fallen ill. Eight years later, Hedda Hopper told Adams she recalled writing about him at the time; and he replied by reciting back to her, "Nick Adams, gas station attendant from New Jersey, did an impersonation of Jimmy Cagney and a scene from Glass Menagerie."
After three years of struggle and optimistic self-promotion, his first film role came in 1951, an uncredited one-liner as a Western Union delivery boy in George Seaton's Somebody Loves Me (1952). This allowed him to join the Screen Actors Guild, but he was unable to find steady acting work, even when "creatively" claiming he had appeared with Jack Palance in The Silver Tassie in New York. Undaunted, Adams joined a theater workshop run by Arthur Kennedy. In January 1952, Adams enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Korean War, serving as an Electrician's Mate. He served until 1955, attaining the rank of Petty Officer Second Class and was awarded the National Defense and Korean War Service Medals.
Supporting actor
About two years later, in June 1954, his ship docked in Long Beach harbor and, after a brash audition for director John Ford during which Adams did impressions of James Cagney and other celebrities while dressed in his Coast Guard uniform, he took his accumulated leave and appeared as Seaman Reber in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts. Adams then completed his military service, returned to Los Angeles and, at the age of 23, based on his work in Mister Roberts, secured a powerful agent, and signed with Warner Bros.
Adams had a small role (as Chick) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Also that year Adams played the role of "Bomber" the paper boy in the widely popular film adaptation of Picnic (1955), which was mostly filmed on location in Kansas, and starred William Holden, Kim Novak, and Susan Strasberg. He was not perceived by casting directors as tall or handsome enough for leading roles, but during the late 1950s, Adams had supporting roles in several successful television productions, including one episode of Wanted Dead or Alive (1958) starring Steve McQueen, and films such as Our Miss Brooks (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), Teacher's Pet (1958), and Pillow Talk (1959).
James Dean
Adams initially may have met James Dean in December 1950 while jitterbugging for a soft drink commercial filmed at Griffith Park. Adams spent three years in the Coast Guard between the time this commercial was shot in late 1950 and the start of filming for Rebel Without a Cause in March 1955. Actor Jack Grinnage, who played Moose, recalled, "Off the set, Nick, Dennis (Hopper), and the others would go out together — almost like the gang we portrayed — but Jimmy and Corey Allen ... were not a part of that." When production was wrapped, Dean said in another press release, "I now regard Natalie (Wood), Nick, and Sal (Mineo) as co-workers; I regard them as friends ... about the only friends I have in this town. And I hope we all work together again soon." Following Dean's 1955 death in an automobile accident, Adams overdubbed some of Dean's lines for the film Giant (these are in Jett Rink's speech at the hotel) and dated co-star Natalie Wood. Adams tried to capitalize on Dean's fame through various publicity stunts, including a claim he was being stalked by a crazed female Dean fan, allowing himself to be photographed at Dean's grave in a contemplative pose, holding flowers, and surrounded by mourning, teenaged female fans along with writing articles and doing interviews about Dean for fan magazines. He also claimed to have developed Dean's affection for fast cars, later telling a reporter, "I became a highway delinquent. I was arrested nine times in one year. They put me on probation, but I kept on racing ... nowhere."
Elvis Presley
Adams's widely publicized friendship with Elvis Presley began in 1956 on the set of Presley's film Love Me Tender during the second day of shooting. Presley had admired James Dean, and when the singer arrived in Hollywood, he was encouraged by studio executives to be seen with some of the "hip" new young actors there. Meanwhile, his manager Colonel Tom Parker was worried that Elvis' new Hollywood acquaintances might influence Presley and even tell him what they were paying their managers and agents (a fraction of what Presley was paying Parker). Elaine Dundy called Parker a "master manipulator" who used Nick Adams and others in the entourage (including Parker's own brother-in-law Bitsy Mott) to counter possible subversion against him and control Elvis' movements. She later wrote a scathing characterization of Adams:
... Brash struggling young actor whose main scheme to further his career was to hitch his wagon to a star, the first being James Dean, about whose friendship he was noisily boastful ... this made it easy for Parker to suggest that Nick be invited to join Elvis' growing entourage of paid companions, and for Nick to accept ... following Adams' hiring, there appeared a newspaper item stating that Nick and Parker were writing a book on Elvis together.
Dundy also wrote, "Of all Elvis' new friends, Nick Adams, by background and temperament the most insecure, was also his closest." Adams was Dennis Hopper's roommate during this period, and the three reportedly socialized together, with Presley "hanging out more and more with Nick and his friends" and glad his manager "liked Nick". Decades later, Kathleen Tracy recalled Adams often met Presley backstage or at Graceland, where Elvis often asked Adams "to stay over on nights": "He and Elvis would go motorcycle riding late at night and stay up until all hours talking about the pain of celebrity" and enjoying prescription drugs.
Almost 40 years later, writer Peter Guralnick wrote that Presley found it "good running around with Nick ... there was always something happening, and the hotel suite was like a private clubhouse where you needed to know the secret password to get in and he got to change the password every day." Presley's girlfriend June Juanico complained the singer was always talking about his friend Adams and James Dean. She also was upset that Adams had started inviting himself to see Elvis, and Juanico felt that she was trying to compete for Elvis' attention. Adams would talk often about Natalie Wood to Elvis, constantly discussing her figure and her beauty, something else that caused Juanico to feel that she would soon lose Elvis to the glitz of Hollywood. Presley's own mother even commented about Adams, "He sure is a pushy little fellow".
As with Dean, Adams capitalized on his association with Presley, publishing an account of their friendship in May 1957. In August 1958, after the death of Elvis's mother Gladys, Parker wrote in a letter, "Nicky Adams [sic] came out to be with Elvis last Week which [sic] was so very kind of him to be there with his friend."
"The Rebel and the King" by Nick Adams is a first-person account written by Adams about his friendship with Presley. The manuscript was written in 1956 by Nick during Presley's eight days in Memphis when the singer returned home for his big Tupelo homecoming. The manuscript was discovered 45 years later by Adams's daughter and initially published in 2012.
The Rebel
In 1959, Adams starred in the ABC series The Rebel playing the character Johnny Yuma, a wandering, ex-Confederate, journal-keeping, sawed-off shotgun toting "trouble-shooter" in the old American west. He is credited as a co-creator of The Rebel, but he had no role in writing the pilot or any of the series' episodes. Adams had asked his friend Andrew J. Fenady to write the pilot as a starring vehicle for him. The series' only recurring character, publicized as a "Reconstruction beatnik", was played by Adams. He reportedly consulted with John Wayne for tips on how to play the role. Adams wanted Presley to sing the theme song for The Rebel, but the show's producer wanted Johnny Cash. Guest stars appearing on the series during its two-year run included Dan Blocker, Johnny Cash, Leonard Nimoy, Tex Ritter, and Robert Vaughn. A total of 76 half-hour episodes were filmed before the series was cancelled in 1961. Reruns were syndicated for several years. Adams went back to TV and film work, along with a role in the short-lived but critically successful television series Saints and Sinners.
Twilight of Honor
Adams was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an unlikable murder suspect in the film Twilight of Honor (1963), which featured the film debuts of both Linda Evans and Joey Heatherton. He campaigned heavily for the award, spending over $8,000 on ads in trade magazines, but many of his strongest scenes had been cut from the movie, and he lost to Melvyn Douglas.
Toho Studios and career decline
In 1964, Adams had a leading role opposite Nancy Malone in an episode ("Fun and Games") of The Outer Limits. A review of this episode written over three decades later would characterize him as an "underrated actor". By this time Adams's career was stalling. He had high hopes his co-starring performance with Robert Conrad in Young Dillinger (1964) would be critically acclaimed, but the project had low production values, and both critics and audiences rejected the film. Also that year, Adams guest-starred in an episode of the short-lived CBS drama The Reporter.
In 1965, after publicly insisting he would never work in films produced outside the U.S., Adams began accepting parts in Japanese science fiction monster movies (kaiju eiga). He landed major roles in two science fiction epics from Toho Studios in Chiyoda, Tokyo. His first Japanese movie was Frankenstein vs. Baragon, in which he played Dr. James Bowen, a radiologist working in Hiroshima who encounters a new incarnation of the Frankenstein monster. Adams next starred in the sixth Godzilla film, Invasion of Astro-Monster (known in the U.S. as Monster Zero), in which he played Astronaut Glenn, journeying to the newly discovered Planet X. In both films, his character had a love interest with characters portrayed by actress Kumi Mizuno. On the set of Monster Zero, Adams and co-star Yoshio Tsuchiya (who played the villainous Controller of Planet X) reportedly got along well and played jokes on each other. Adams made three films in Japan between 1965 and 1966. Adams' final film for Toho was the final film in the "International Secret Police" Series, which began with the film "Key of Keys" Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi (国際秘密警察 鍵の鍵, International Secret Police: Key of Keys), which was the basis for the Woody Allen scripted spoof What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966). The English title for this final film was "The Killing Bottle", Toho shot the film in Japanese with Adams doing his lines in English as in the previous films. An English dub was commissioned by Henry G. Saperstein, and produced by Titra Studios. This English version was never released in the U.S., but there were rumors of the English dub being released in Yugoslavia. The most interesting aspect of this film, is that Adams actually performed his own fights scenes using Kenpo, a style he had been learning under Senior Grand Master Ed Parker in the States. Previous to this time, he also co-starred with Boris Karloff in Die, Monster, Die! (1965), a Gothic horror–sci fi movie filmed in England.
1967: TV episodes and low-budget films
In early 1967, Disney released Mosby's Marauders, a Civil War drama told from a southern perspective with Adams in the role of a cruel Union army sergeant. Adams guest-starred in five episodes of four TV series that year, including an installment of his friend Robert Conrad's The Wild Wild West, an appearance in Combat! and two episodes of Hondo (a short-lived western which also had an ex-Confederate theme). Throughout 1967 and early 1968, he also worked in three low-budget films. One of these was Mission Mars (1968) which has been described as "rarely seen, and utterly dreadful." Adams's costume for this movie included an off-the-shelf motorcycle helmet. Reacting to Mission Mars over 30 years later, SciFi reviewer Gary Westfahl wrote, "The only quality that Adams could persuasively project on film was a desperate desire to be popular, to be liked ... which helps to explain why Adams got his foot in many doors." Adams's last U.S. production was a movie filmed in Iowa called Fever Heat. His last film appearance was in the little-seen Spanish-language western Los Asesinos, filmed in Mexico City, Mexico.
Marriage and children
Adams married former child actress Carol Nugent in 1959. Nugent had appeared in an episode of The Rebel. They had two children, Allyson and Jeb Stuart Adams. Jeb was a child actor, then gave up acting, and is now a successful realtor in Ventura County, California. Allyson was a film director, but is now a costume designer and activist.
Sometimes acrimonious marital problems reportedly interfered with his ability to get lucrative acting parts after 1963. While promoting Young Dillinger during a television appearance on The Les Crane Show in early 1965, Adams "shocked" the viewing audience with an announcement that he was leaving his wife, seemingly without telling her first. The couple publicly announced a reconciliation a week later, but his career and personal life following this episode have been characterized as a "tragic freefall".
Adams and actress Kumi Mizuno may have had a short affair while he was working in Japan. "That's one of the reasons my parents were divorced," his daughter, playwright Allyson Lee Adams, later said. "My dad had a penchant for becoming infatuated with his leading ladies. It was a way for him to take on the role he was playing at the time." Rumors of a romance between the two were common occurrence until Mizuno denied it during an interview in 1996.
By July 1965, Adams and Nugent were legally separated; Nugent filed for divorce in September. The following month, while Adams was in Japan, Nugent was granted a divorce and custody of the children. In January 1966, Adams and Nugent announced another reconciliation on Bill John's Hollywood Star Notebook, a local television show. However, in November 1966, Nugent resumed the divorce proceedings and obtained a restraining order against him, alleging Adams was "prone to fits of temper", and in an affidavit, charged he had "choked her, struck her and threatened to kill her during the past few weeks." On January 20, 1967, Adams was waiting for a court hearing to start when he was served with a $110,000 defamation suit by Nugent's boyfriend, Paul Rapp, who later married Nugent. Nevertheless, nine days later he was granted temporary custody of the children. His son Jeb Adams later recalled, "He saw it as a competition, basically, more than anything of getting custody of us. But, a matter of a week or two later, he gave us back to my mom." Nugent later regained legal custody of the children.
Death
After finishing Los Asesinos (1968), produced by Luis Enrique Vergara and filmed in Mexico, Adams bought a plane ticket with his own money and flew to Rome, Italy, to co-star with Aldo Ray in a science fiction/horror movie called Murder in the Third Dimension, but when he got there, he found the project had been dropped. Susan Strasberg, who had worked with him 13 years earlier on the hit film Picnic and was living in Italy, encountered a thoroughly demoralized Adams in a Rome bar.
On the night of February 7, 1968, his lawyer and friend, ex-LAPD officer Ervin Roeder, drove to the actor's house at 2126 El Roble Lane in Beverly Hills to check on him after a missed dinner appointment. Seeing a light on and his car in the garage, Roeder broke through a window and discovered Adams in his upstairs bedroom, slumped dead against a wall.
During the autopsy Dr. Thomas Noguchi found enough paraldehyde, sedatives and other drugs in the body "to cause instant unconsciousness." The death certificate lists "paraldehyde and promazine intoxication" as the immediate cause of death, along with the notation "accident; suicide; undetermined." During the 1960s, drug interaction warnings were not so prominent as they later would be, and the American Medical Association has subsequently warned these two types of drugs should never be taken together.
The death of Nick Adams has been cited in articles and books about Hollywood's unsolved mysteries along with speculation by a few of his acquaintances that he was murdered (according to author David Kulczyk, Adams was apparently planning to write a tell-all book revealing many sexual secrets of Hollywood names) and claims no trace of paraldehyde (a liquid sedative often given to alcoholics at the time and one of two drugs attributed to his death) was ever found in his home. However, Adams's brother Andrew had become a medical doctor and prescribed the sedative to him. Moreover, a story in the Los Angeles Times reported stoppered bottles with prescription labels were found in the medicine cabinet near the upstairs bedroom where Adams's body was discovered. Through the years, his children offered speculation ranging from murder to accidental death, the latter perhaps caused by Roeder while trying to calm the actor's nerves with an unintentionally lethal combination of alcohol and prescription drugs (although the autopsy found no alcohol in Adams's blood). Actor Robert Conrad, Adams's best friend, consistently maintained that the death was accidental.
Carol Adams is listed as Adams's spouse on his death certificate, evidence the divorce had not become final when the actor died. She and the children were living only a few blocks from his recently-rented house on El Roble Lane.
Adams's remains were interred at Saints Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Berwick, Pennsylvania. The backside of his gravestone, which bears a silhouette of Adams wearing the Civil War-era cap from his television series, is inscribed Nick Adams — The Rebel — Actor of Hollywood Screens.
Later published speculation
Sexuality
Decades later, Adams's highly publicized life and death at a young age, his friendships with cultural icons such as James Dean and Elvis Presley, and his reported drug consumption made his private life the subject of many reports and assertions by some writers who have claimed Adams may have been gay or bisexual. One of the earliest published mentions on this overall topic was made by gossip columnist Rona Barrett in her 1974 autobiography, in which she made no assertion Adams was homosexual or bisexual but claimed Adams had told her, along with a "whole roomful of people," that he wasn't making it because no one in Hollywood's upper stratosphere would accept his wife. Barrett called it "untrue. She was one of the most refreshing wives in the entire community" and went on to say Adams "had become the companion to a group of salacious homosexuals" who flattered the actor, which affected his judgment and caused him to blame Carol. Hollywood biographer Lawrence J. Quirk claimed Mike Connolly (a gay gossip columnist for The Hollywood Reporter from 1951 to 1966) "would put the make on the most prominent young actors, including Robert Francis, Guy Madison, Anthony Perkins, Nick Adams, and James Dean." According to American Film (1986), "Nick Adams, who was ...gay, was the butt of anti-gay humor in Pillow Talk".
Some writers later called Adams a "Hollywood hustler" or a "street hustler". One journalist also refers to Adams as a "pool hustler" who made money in pool halls when he was a teenager in New Jersey and later while struggling to make ends meet during his early years in Hollywood.
Friendship with Dean and Presley
It is uncertain whether James Dean and Adams met before his service in the United States Coast Guard (1952–1955) and subsequent role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). In his 1986 gossip book about gay Hollywood, Conversations with My Elders, Boze Hadleigh claimed actor Sal Mineo told him in 1972, "I didn't hear it from Jimmy (James Dean), who was sort of awesome to me when we did Rebel, but Nick told me they had a big affair." According to Presley biographer Albert Goldman, "Nick Adams ingratiated himself with James Dean precisely as he would do a year or so later with Elvis. He offered himself to the shy, emotionally contorted and rebellious Dean, as a friend, a guide, a boon companion, a homosexual lover – whatever role or service Dean required." Journalist, screenwriter and author of books about Hollywood, John Gregory Dunne wrote that "James Dean was bisexual, as were Nick Adams and Sal Mineo." According to Eric Braun, "Elvis was attracted by Adams' outgoing personality and the young actors caused quite a stir, cruising round Los Angeles with Natalie Wood, Russ Tamblyn and others on their Hondas." In 2005, Byron Raphael and Presley biographer Alanna Nash wrote that Adams may have "swung both ways" like "Adams's good pal (and Elvis's idol) James Dean. Tongues wagged that Elvis and Adams were getting it on."
Studio-arranged dates
Adams regularly dated actresses with whom he made movies. During the mid-1950s, photographs of him with actress Natalie Wood were widely publicized in fan magazines. Modern Screen wrote at the time "their relationship has been mostly for fun" and they shared "a tendency toward moodiness and unpredictability." The magazine also reported they had given joint interviews "in which they admitted they adored each other" and "they even came terribly close to getting married" in Las Vegas. The same article also remarked that on one of their trips they "posed for innumerable publicity photographs — that was the real reason for the trip — " and "Right now, both Nick and Natalie are inclined to deny the whole Las Vegas episode." In his 2004 biography Natalie Wood: A Life biographer and screenwriter Gavin Lambert wrote in passing, Wood's "first studio-arranged date with a gay or bisexual actor had been with Nick Adams." In his biography of gay Hollywood agent Henry Willson, Robert Hofler deals with the rise of the studio star system, in which several actors spent time on the homosexual casting couch and dated girls or even entered into sham marriages in order to cover their homosexuality. "In the Henry Willson date pool," the author says, "Nick Adams was one client, among many, who glommed on to Natalie Wood to get his picture taken." Suzanne Finstad cites actor Jack Grinnage, one of the gang members in Rebel Without a Cause, about Nick Adams's and Dennis Hopper's reasons "for getting close to Natalie. 'I remember being in Dennis' dressing room with Nick and Natalie ... I don't know which one of them said this — it was Nick or Dennis — but he said, "We're gonna hang on to her bra straps." Meaning up the career ladder.' Natalie's tutor, who knew Hopper and Adams off set, said, 'Both of those two guys were all over her ... because they could see that this movie was going to be a big thing for Natalie ... they were game for anything in order to be noticed and to get ahead in the business.' "
Actress Olive Sturgess relates: "When Nick and I went out, it was a casual thing —no great love or anything like that ... I thought he was very troubled ... You could feel he was troubled. It was the manner he had —that was the way he was in real life, always brooding ... When we went out, it was never on his motorcycle! That's one trick he couldn't pull on me. We always went in a car!"
Lack of confirmation
Because of morality clauses in studio contracts, along with practical marketing concerns, most homosexual actors during the 1950s and 1960s were forced to be discreet about their sexuality. However, Adams was known in Hollywood for embellishing and inventing stories about his show business experiences and long tried to capitalize on his associations with James Dean and Elvis Presley. In a brief biographical article, journalist Bill Kelly wrote Adams "became James Dean's closest pal, although Nick was straight and Dean was bisexual." Moreover, there are neither court documents (such as from the long and drawn-out divorce and child custody proceedings between him and his wife), nor personal letters from Adams, nor directly attributable statements by any alleged male lovers, to support the assertions.
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1952 | Somebody Loves Me | Western Union boy | Uncredited |
1955 | Strange Lady in Town | Billy the Kid | |
Mister Roberts | Reber | ||
Rebel Without a Cause | Chick | ||
Picnic | Bomber | ||
I Died a Thousand Times | Bell Boy | Uncredited | |
1956 | Our Miss Brooks | Gary Nolan | |
A Strange Adventure | Phil Davis | Alternative title: White Nightmare | |
The Last Wagon | Ridge | ||
Giant | Jett Rink | Voice, Uncredited | |
1957 | Fury at Showdown | Tracy Mitchell | |
Sweet Smell of Success | Hot-Dog Stand Customer | Uncredited | |
1958 | Sing, Boy, Sing | C.K. Judd | |
Teacher's Pet | Barney Kovac | ||
No Time for Sergeants | Pvt. Benjamin B. Whitledge | ||
1959 | The FBI Story | John Gilbert "Jack" Graham | |
Pillow Talk | Tony Walters | ||
1962 | Hell is for Heroes | Homer Janeczek | |
The Interns | Dr. Sid Lackland | ||
A Girl Named Tamiko | |||
1963 | The Hook | Pvt. V.R. Hackett | |
Twilight of Honor | Ben Brown | Alternative title: The Charge is Murder Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor | |
1964 | The Young Lovers | Tarragoo | |
1965 | Young Dillinger | John Dillinger | |
Frankenstein vs. Baragon | Dr. James Bowen | ||
Die, Monster, Die! | Stephen Reinhart | Alternative titles: Monster of Terror The House at the End of the World | |
Invasion of Astro-Monster | Astronaut Glenn | Alternative titles: Monster Zero Godzilla vs. Monster Zero | |
1966 | Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title | KEB agent | Uncredited |
1967 | The Killing Bottle | John Carter | Alternative titles: International Secret Police: Driven to the Wall Zettai zatsumi |
Mosby's Marauders | Sgt. Gregg | ||
1968 | Fever Heat | Ace Jones | |
Mission Mars | Nick Grant | ||
Los Asesinos | Shannon | (final film role) |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1956 | The People's Choice | Augie | Episode: "Sock and Augie" |
1957 | Playhouse 90 | Sandy | Episode: "The Troublemakers" |
1958 | Richard Diamond, Private Detective | Mickey Houseman | Episode: "Juvenile Jacket" |
1958 | Wanted Dead or Alive | Andy Martin | Episode: "The Martin Poster" |
1958 | Cimarron City | John Hartman, Jr. | Episode: "Twelve Guns" |
1958 | Letter to Loretta | Chip Davidson | Episode: "Out of Control" |
1958 | Steve Canyon | Sgt. Korman | Episode: "Operation Crash Landing" |
1958–1959 | Zane Grey Theatre | Lynn Parsons George Pelletti |
2 episodes |
1958–1959 | Trackdown | Various roles | 3 episodes |
1958–1961 | Wagon Train | Antonio "Tonio" Sam Upton |
2 episodes |
1959 | Yancy Derringer | Duke Alexis | Episode: "The Night the Russians Landed" |
1959 | Tales of Wells Fargo | Ira Watkins | Episode: "The Tired Gun" |
1959 | The David Niven Show | Episode: "Portrait" | |
1959–1961 | The Rebel | Johnny Yuma | 76 episodes Wrote 38 episodes, credited as creator |
1961–1962 | The Dick Powell Show | Nick Phillips George Townsend |
2 episodes |
1961–1962 | General Electric Theater | Paul Madsen Richard Martin |
2 episodes |
1962 | Checkmate | Weiler aka "Kid" | Episode: "A Chant of Silence" |
1962 | 'The Joey Bishop Show' | Singer Snooky Bradford | Episode: The Big Date |
1962–1963 | Saints and Sinners | Nick Alexander | 18 episodes |
1963 | 77 Sunset Strip | Max Dent | Episode: "By His Own Verdict" |
1963–1965 | Burke's Law | Various roles | 5 episodes |
1963–1967 | Combat! | Pvt. Mick Hellar Cpl. Marty Roberts |
2 episodes |
1964 | Arrest and Trial | Ronnie Blake | Episode: "A Roll of the Dice" |
1964 | The Outer Limits | Mike Benson | Episode: "Fun and Games" |
1964 | The Reporter | Roger | Episode: "How Much for a Prince?" |
1964 | Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | Jason Kemp | Episode: "Turn Back the Clock" |
1964 | Rawhide | Corporal Dasovik | Episode: "Corporal Dasovik" |
1965 | Ben Casey | Orin Reid | Episode: "Three Li'l Lambs" |
1966–1968 | The Wild Wild West | Prince/Sheriff Dave Cord | Episode/S3 E18 |
1967 | The Wonderful World of Disney | Sergeant Gregg | 2 episodes |
1967 | The Monroes | Dave | Episode: "Gun Bound" |
1967 | Hondo | Apache Kid | 2 episodes |
Notes and references
- Dan Pavlides, Fandango, Fever Heat synopsis. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
- Frasier, David K. (September 11, 2015). Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases. McFarland. p. 8. ISBN 9781476608075 – via Google Books.
- ^ Winkler, Peter L. (October 30, 2009). "Nick Adams: His Hollywood Life and Death". Crimemagazine.com. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
- Hyams, Joe. "It's More Than A Role: TV's Nick Adams Is The Rebel", The Tuscaloosa News, December 25, 1960. Accessed July 23, 2019. "'I remember when I was in Henry Snyder High School in Jersey I was a three letter man but I couldn't make the senior class play.'"
- ^ Adams, Nick, EM2 - Deceased. Together We Served. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
- This commercial is widely and reliably cited as James Dean's first paid work as an actor, but Adams's participation is only ambiguously confirmed. Many Internet accounts describe it as a Pepsi-Cola commercial, but it may have been for Coca-Cola. A few accounts say Adams was called back (with Dean and another actress) for a second day of interior shots around a jukebox.
- Jack Grinnage, American Legends, James Dean. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
- James Dean, Tribute to a Legend, Bio Archived January 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
- Elaine Dundy, Elvis and Gladys (University Press of Mississippi, 2004), p.260, He wrote to Dundy saying, "I was a friend of James Dean."
- Photograph of Adams at Dean gravesite in Fairmount, Indiana, abt 1956, viewed December 7, 2007
- See Nick Adams' letter to a certain Caroline (obverse) Archived October 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine(reverse) Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine: "I think you're wonderful for thinking so much of Jimmy. I've just written a story about him in the September issue of Screen Stars. ... He was the most wonderful, kindest guy in the whole world. The article about Jimmy and Vampira was not true. Jimmy smoked Viceroys most of the time. I'm enclosing a picture of Jimmy from a scene in Giant. I wish I could send you something of his but I only have a few things of his and I would never part with them ... Jimmy would have liked you very much if he had known you. ... PS: I'm also returning your quarter. I could never accept any money from someone as wonderful as you!"
- Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, page 328 "On his second day of filming on the set of Love Me Tender he met twenty-five-year-old Nick Adams, a Hollywood hustler who had originally brazened his way into the cast of Mister Roberts two years before by doing impressions of the star, Jimmy Cagney, for director John Ford."
- Elaine Dundy, Elvis and Gladys (1985) p. 250
- Elaine Dundy, Elvis and Gladys, p. 250.
- Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, pp. 336, 339.
- See Red West Interview Archived October 8, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Memphis Mafia member Red West later wrote Adams "was a friend of Elvis's and I went to Hollywood and met him. He helped me get into the first door and then Robert Conrad who did Hawaiian Eye and Wild Wild West, we played football every Sunday when Elvis got back and all those people would come out ..."
- Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, pp. 339–340.
- Her account is supported by Robert W. Dye, The Mid-south Fair, (Tn): Celebrating 150 Years (2006), p.114. After Presley completed filming he was booked to perform a large outdoor show in Tupelo, Mississippi, where he "arrived on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle with Nick Adams."
- Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, p. 410.
- ^ Cited in Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, pp. 347–348. "He started telling her all about Nick and Nick's friends and Jimmy Dean, but she didn't want to hear."
- Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, pp. 347–348.
- See Trude Forsher Archive, Letter of Authenticity from Mrs. Forsher's son. From 1956–1961, Trude Forsher was Elvis Presley's and Colonel Tom Parker's personal secretary. Her vast collection of Elvis memorabilia remained with her family for almost 50 years.
- "The Rebel & The King". Allyson Adams.
- Johnson, Brett (2012). "'The Rebel and the King': Allyson Adams Finds Late Father's Book About Elvis, Decides to Publish It," reprint by The Huffington Post (November 3, 2012) of original article published in Ventura County Star. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
- Television Obscurities, The Rebel, October 14, 2003. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
- davidjschow.com, The Outer Limits — Fun and Games Archived February 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, episode reviews written 1998–2001. Retrieved March 6, 2008.
- Adams once asked Tsuchiya how to say "good morning" in Japanese, but he instead taught Adams how to say "I'm hungry" (Adams was on a strict diet at the time and nearly fainted during filming). Later, when shooting a scene, Adams got even by saying to Tsuchiya in Japanese, "You're overacting!" Before leaving Toho, Adams wanted a picture of Tsuchiya, who at first thought he was just flattering him, but he said he really wanted something to remember him by. Before leaving Toho, Adams gave one of his formal outfits to Akira Kubo (who co-starred in Monster Zero as the meek inventor Tetsuo Torî) because, according to Kubo, "the suit fit me."
- "The Killing Bottle (1967) - IMDb". IMDb.
- ^ Gary Westfahl, the SciFi site, Nick Adams. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
- ^ "Actor Nick Adams Sued For Divorce". The Tuscaloosa News. November 29, 1966. p. 16. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
- "Actor Nick Adams Dies at His Home of Natural Causes". Lawrence Journal-World. February 8, 1968. p. 12. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
- Steve Ryfle, Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G.", p.130.
- Susan Strasberg, Bittersweet
- Steve Ryfle, Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G.", p.130
- Barret, Miss Rona (1974)
- See Val Holley, Mike Connolly and the Manly Art of Hollywood Gossip (2003), p. 22.
- See American Film, published by the American Film Institute, 1986, p. 48.
- Leigh W. Rutledge, The Gay Book of Lists (2003), p. 27. Rutledge writes that James Dean "claimed to have worked, with his friend Nick Adams, as a street hustler after he first arrived in Hollywood."
- cybersleuths.com, Bill Kelly, The Unsolved Death of Nick Adams Archived December 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved December 30, 2007, Kelly notes Adams "... grew up in the smoky pool halls of Jersey City" and later in Hollywood "... fell back on his old skills as a pool hustler, his means of survival in Jersey City."
- Albert Goldman, Elvis (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), p. 215.
- John Gregory Dunne, Regards: The Selected Nonfiction of John Gregory Dunne (2005), p.242.
- See Eric Braun, Frightening the Horses: Gay Icons of the Cinema (2002), p.186.
- Byron Raphael with Alanna Nash, "In Bed with Elvis", Playboy, November 2005, Vol. 52, Iss. 11.
- Gavin Lambert, Natalie Wood: A Life (2004) p. 199
- See Robert Hofler, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson (2005), p.205.
- Suzanne Finstad, Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood, p.190.
- Michael G. Fitzgerald and Boyd Magers, Ladies of the Western: Interviews with Fifty-One More Actresses from the Silent Era to the Television Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s (2002), p.266.
- Bill Kelly, The Unsolved Death of Nick Adams Archived December 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved December 5, 2007, please note however, although Kelly knew Adams, this article contains several verifiable errors of fact.
- Stern, Keith (2009), "Nick Adams", Queers in History, BenBella Books, Inc.; Dallas, Texas, ISBN 978-1-933771-87-8
External links
- Nick Adams at IMDb
- Peter L. Winkler, "Nick Adams: His Hollywood Life and Death", Crime Magazine, August 15, 2003.
- 1931 births
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- 20th-century American male actors
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- Henry Snyder High School alumni
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- United States Coast Guard personnel of the Korean War
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