Biography
A graduate of St. Peter's College, Nick Adams made his screen-acting bow at age 20 with a bit in
Somebody Loves Me (1952). Signed at Warner Bros. in 1955, Adams appeared with
James Dean in
Rebel without a Cause. An inveterate offscreen prankster, Adams enjoyed making Dean laugh by doing on-target impersonations of his co-stars; this talent came in handy when Adams was called upon to dub in several of
James Dean's lines in
Giant after Dean's fatal car accident. The best of Adams' 1950s movie assignments included the role of
Andy Griffith's nerdish air force buddy in
No Time for Sergeants (1957) and the would-be seducer of
Doris Day in
Pillow Talk (1959). In 1959, Adams was cast as ex-Confederate soldier Johnny Yuma on the popular TV western
The Rebel; less successful was his 1962 starring series
Saints and Sinners. After an Oscar nomination for his performance as a surly murder suspect in
Twilight of Honor (1963), Adams' career went into an eclipse. Nick Adams died in 1968, the result of an overdose of prescription drugs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide