Nick Adams

Nick Adams, born Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock on July 10, 1931, in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, was an American film, television, and stage actor and screenwriter. His parents, Catherine and Peter Adamshock, were both of Ukrainian ancestry; his father worked as an anthracite coal miner. After a mining accident prompted his father to leave that occupation, the family relocated to Jersey City. Adams died on February 7, 1968, from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 36.

Adams was a successful athlete at Henry Snyder High School but failed to secure a part in his senior class play. Despite his family's skepticism about an acting career, he spent a year doing unpaid acting work in New York before hitchhiking to Los Angeles. His earliest paid stage work in Los Angeles was a role at the Las Palmas Theater in a comedy called Mr. Big Shot, for which he earned approximately sixty dollars a week, though membership in Actors' Equity Association cost him $175. He also filled in for Pearl Bailey one evening at the Mocambo nightclub, earning $25 for the appearance. During this period he 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 until 1955. He attained the rank of Petty Officer Second Class and received the National Defense and Korean War Service Medals. His first film role had come in 1951, an uncredited appearance as a Western Union delivery boy in Somebody Loves Me (1952), which allowed him to join the Screen Actors Guild. In June 1954, while his ship was docked in Long Beach Harbor, Adams auditioned for director John Ford by performing impressions of James Cagney and other celebrities while in his Coast Guard uniform, securing a role as Seaman Reber in the 1955 film Mister Roberts. Following his discharge, he signed with Warner Bros. at the age of 23.

On Broadway, Adams appeared in the 1934 play Dodsworth. His stage work preceded a career that would span Hollywood film and television across the 1950s and 1960s. Among his film credits, he played Chick in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and the role of Bomber the paper boy in the 1955 film adaptation of Picnic, which starred William Holden, Kim Novak, and Susan Strasberg and was filmed largely on location in Kansas. Casting directors did not consider him suited for leading roles, but he accumulated supporting credits in television productions including an episode of Wanted Dead or Alive (1958) starring Steve McQueen, as well as films such as Our Miss Brooks (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), Teacher's Pet (1958), and Pillow Talk (1959).

Adams starred in the ABC television series The Rebel from 1959 to 1961 and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Twilight of Honor (1963). He also appeared in several Japanese productions, including Frankenstein Conquers the World, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and The Killing Bottle.

Adams had a widely publicized friendship with James Dean, whom he may have first encountered in December 1950 during the filming of a soft drink commercial at Griffith Park. The two worked together on Rebel Without a Cause, and following Dean's death in a 1955 automobile accident, Adams overdubbed some of Dean's dialogue for the film Giant during Jett Rink's hotel speech. Adams also dated Dean's co-star Natalie Wood following Dean's death and pursued various publicity efforts connected to Dean's fame, including writing articles and giving interviews about Dean for fan magazines and being photographed at Dean's grave.

Adams's friendship with Elvis Presley began in 1956 on the set of Love Me Tender during the second day of shooting. Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker encouraged Adams's inclusion in Presley's entourage, and a newspaper item subsequently appeared stating that Adams and Parker were collaborating on a book about Presley. Adams frequently met Presley backstage or at Graceland during this period. Adams was also Dennis Hopper's roommate at the time, and the three socialized together regularly.

Decades after his death, Adams's friendships with Dean and Presley continued to generate public speculation about his private life and the circumstances of his overdose. His final film was Fever Heat.