Marla Adams

Marla Vene Adams (August 28, 1938 – April 25, 2024) was an American actress whose career spanned Broadway, film, and decades of television work, including prominent roles on multiple daytime soap operas. Born in Ocean City, New Jersey, Adams won the Miss Ocean City and Miss Cape May pageants as a teenager and was named Miss Diamond Jubilee at her hometown's 75th anniversary celebration in 1954. She graduated from Ocean City High School two years later and went on to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

On the day she completed her studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Adams secured the role of Ottilie Schill in the original Broadway production of The Visit, a drama that ran from May 5, 1958 to November 29, 1958 at the Morosco Theatre. The production featured Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, with whom Adams shared the stage. Her early theater work also included productions of The Mikado, The Devil's a Stranger, Deathtrap, Inherit the Wind alongside Ed Begley Jr., and Roger the Sixth alongside Dorothy Lamour. In 1981, she appeared in a stage production of The Max Factor, co-starring with Cesar Romero, and later starred in a production of The Odd Couple opposite Lee Meriwether. She also performed in the musical Les Ms. at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles and co-starred with Don Knotts in Last of the Red Hot Lovers.

Adams made her film debut opposite Natalie Wood in the period drama Splendor in the Grass in 1961. Her subsequent film appearances included Special Delivery (1976), Gotcha! (1985), and Beneath the Leaves (2019), which marked her final film role. On television, she made an early appearance as Mildred Deal on General Hospital in 1963 before being cast as Belle Clemens on the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm in 1968. The character was the show's central villainess, whose schemes targeted leading heroine Amy Ames, played by Jada Rowland. Adams remained in the role until the series was cancelled in 1974.

Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, Adams accumulated a wide range of television guest credits, appearing on The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Harry O, Marcus Welby M.D., Barnaby Jones, Emergency!, Adam-12, Starsky and Hutch, The Streets of San Francisco, The Love Boat, Carter Country, Hart to Hart, Archie Bunker's Place, and Happy Days. She played Ruth in the 1975 television film The Secret Night Caller alongside Robert Reed and Cathy in the 1984 television film Concrete Beat. In 1983, she briefly played Myrna Clegg on the CBS soap opera Capitol before being cast as Dina Abbott Mergeron on The Young and the Restless, a character defined as the ex-wife of John Abbott and mother of his three children. Adams first aired in the role on May 27, 1983, and departed in 1986 when her contract ended.

Adams returned to The Young and the Restless as Dina for brief appearances in 1991 and 1996, and again in 2008 for three episodes tied to a storyline involving Katherine Chancellor. Between those stints, she took on additional soap roles, including Helen Mullins on the NBC soap opera Generations from 1989 to 1990 and Beth Logan on The Bold and the Beautiful in December 1990, a role previously held by Nancy Burnett. She also appeared as Dr. Claire McIntyre on Days of Our Lives, first airing February 3, 1999 and last airing September 2, 1999, and held a recurring role as Betsy Harper on Walker, Texas Ranger from 2000 to 2001. Her television film credits from this period include Marilyn and Me (1991), in which she played Gladys Baker, the mother of Marilyn Monroe, White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd (1991), Maybe Baby (1988), and The President's Man (2000), in which she played First Lady Matthews.

Adams returned to The Young and the Restless on a recurring basis beginning May 3, 2017, with the character of Dina given a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. She received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2018 for the role. Dina's death from Alzheimer's was written into the show, and Adams' final air date was October 20, 2020. On June 25, 2021, Adams won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work on The Young and the Restless.

In her personal life, Adams met her first husband, George Oates, while both were students at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. They were married for seven years before divorcing. She later remarried and divorced a second time. Adams had two children, a son and a daughter, and two grandchildren. Her son appeared in an episode of The Secret Storm, delivering a red rose to her character Belle Clemens, and continued to send Adams a red rose each Mother's Day thereafter. Adams died of cancer in Los Angeles on April 25, 2024, at the age of 85.