Nick Adams (actor, born 1931)

Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968), better known as Nick Adams, 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 along with his starring role in the ABC television series The Rebel (1959–1961). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Twilight of Honor (1963). 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, Adams' 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' last film Fever Heat, 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."Dan Pavlides, Fandango, Fever Heat synopsis. Retrieved December 7, 2007.

Early life and career Nick Adams was born as Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, to Catherine (Kutz) and Peter Adamshock, an anthracite coal miner; both his parents were of Ukrainian ancestry. 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, Adamshock's father quit his job as a miner and the family moved to Jersey City.

Although a successful athlete at Henry Snyder High School, Adamschock failed to get a part in the school play when he was a senior.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.'" 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, he hitchhiked to Los Angeles.

Hollywood career Struggling actor

Adamshock's earliest reported paid acting job in Los Angeles under the name Nick Adams 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.Adams, Nick, EM2 - Deceased. Together We Served. Retrieved February 22, 2024. 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, Adams' 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."Jack Grinnage, American Legends, James Dean. Retrieved December 6, 2007. 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."James Dean, Tribute to a Legend, Bio . Retrieved December 6, 2007. Following Dean's 1955 death in an automobile accident, Adams overdubbed some of Dean's lines for the film Giant during 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.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: "...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!" 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 Adams and others in the entourage (including Parker's own brother-in-law Bitsy Mott) to counter possible subversion against him and control Presley's 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 Parker "liked Nick".See Red West Interview . 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 ..." Decades later, Kathleen Tracy recalled Adams often met Presley backstage or at Graceland, where Presley 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.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."

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 Presley and Juanico felt that she was trying to compete for Presley's attention. Adams would talk often about Natalie Wood to Presley, constantly discussing her figure and her beauty, something else that caused Juanico to feel that she would soon lose Presley to the glitz of Hollywood. Presley's own mother Gladys 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 Presley's mother Gladys, Parker wrote in a letter, "Nicky came out to be with Elvis last Week was so very kind of him to be there with his friend."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 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' daughter Allyson and initially published in 2012.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.

The Rebel