Edie Adams


Actor
Edie Adams

About

Also Known As
Elizabeth Edith Enke, Edith Adams
Birth Place
Kingston, Pennsylvania
Born
April 16, 1927
Died
October 15, 2008

Biography

From her brief-but-celebrated TV series, "Here's Edie," to her Broadway turns, and roles in such classic films as "The Apartment," Edie Adams has charmed everyone lucky enough to catch her in her element. After training at Juilliard, Columbia, and the Actors Studio, Adams began to work with comedian Ernie Kovacs on his groundbreaking comedy show, and the pair eloped in 1954. The early ‘6...

Family & Companions

Ernie Kovacs
Husband
Entertainer, comedian. Died 1962.
Peter Candoli
Husband
Married c. 1972; former husband of Betty Hutton.

Biography

From her brief-but-celebrated TV series, "Here's Edie," to her Broadway turns, and roles in such classic films as "The Apartment," Edie Adams has charmed everyone lucky enough to catch her in her element. After training at Juilliard, Columbia, and the Actors Studio, Adams began to work with comedian Ernie Kovacs on his groundbreaking comedy show, and the pair eloped in 1954. The early ‘60s saw Adams working in the ad-world romantic comedy "Lover Come Back" alongside Rock Hudson and Doris Day, in Stanley Kramer's madcap comedy caper "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," and against type as a betrayed, angry secretary in Billy Wilder's Oscar-winner "The Apartment." When Kovacs died suddenly in a car accident in 1962, ABC gave Adams the short-lived "Here's Edie," which, although critically well received, lasted only one season. Meanwhile, her turns on Broadway, in nightclubs, and on the screen helped etch Adams in the American psyche as a whip-smart, brash, talented screen presence; she was particularly famous for her impressions of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Marilyn Monroe. After Kovacs' untimely death, Adams was beset with legal problems over her stepchildren and paying off Kovacs's tax debt, but her story is one of perseverance. In the 1960s she launched Edie Adams Cosmetics and Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl beauty salons and, through tireless work, she bounced back. Her screen career from the 1970s onward consisted of TV appearances and cameos. From "McMillan & Wife" to "Designing Women," Adams was always a delightful scene-stealer until retiring from acting in the early ‘90s.

Filmography

 

Cast (Feature Film)

Jake Spanner, Private Eye (1989)
Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter (1984)
Shooting Stars (1983)
Boxoffice (1982)
The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980)
The Portrait of An Escort (1980)
Make Me An Offer (1980)
Francine Sherman
A Cry for Love (1980)
Tessie
Fast Friends (1979)
Connie Burton
Superdome (1978)
Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke (1978)
The Return of Joe Forrester (1975)
Evil Roy Slade (1972)
The Honey Pot (1967)
Merle McGill
Made in Paris (1966)
Irene Chase
The Oscar (1966)
Trina Yale
The Best Man (1964)
Mabel Cantwell
Call Me Bwana (1963)
Frederica Larsen
Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963)
Irene
Love With the Proper Stranger (1963)
Barbie, Barbara of Seville
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Monica Crump
Lover Come Back (1961)
Rebel Davis
The Apartment (1960)
Miss Olsen

Misc. Crew (Feature Film)

Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter (1984)
Other

Cast (Special)

Laugh Out Loud: TV's 15 Greatest Comedians (2002)
Intimate Portrait: Lucille Ball (2002)
Jackie Gleason: The Great One (2001)
Interviewee
Spencer Tracy: Triumph and Turmoil (1999)
Ernie Kovacs: Please Stand By (1998)
Interviewee
Doris Day: It's Magic (1998)
NYTV: By the People Who Made It (1998)
The Television Academy Hall of Fame (1987)
Performer
Neat and Tidy (1986)
The Screen Actors Guild 50th Anniversary Celebration (1984)
The Haunting of Harrington House (1981)
The Bing Crosby Springtime Special (1962)
Guest
Private Eye, Private Eye (1961)
Guest
The Spiral Staircase (1961)
American Cowboy (1960)
Guest
Cinderella (1957)
Fairy Godmother

Cast (TV Mini-Series)

The Desilu Story: The Rags to Riches Success of the Desilu Empire (2003)
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (1994)
The Seekers (1979)

Life Events

Videos

Movie Clip

Lover Come Back (1961) -- (Movie Clip) It Looks Down On Madison Avenue Carol (Doris Day) has forced a hearing before the Madison Avenue ethics-enforcing “Advertising Council,” not knowing that her target, Jerry Webster (Rock Hudson, not seen) has tricked her witness, dishy model Rebel (Edie Adams) into hiding his dubious practices, in Lover Come Back, 1961.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) -- (Movie Clip) Every Man For Himself! The second scene of motorist-witnesses Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, and Buddy Hackett (Edie Adams and Dorothy Provine not talking) finally not agreeing on how to split the loot from the dead gangster’s stash, in It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 1963.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) -- (Movie Clip) Title Song It’s not always remembered that there’s a title song, by Ernest Gold and Mack David, presented here as the Overture, before the credits and everything, sung by an uncredited chorus, from the Stanley Kramer all-star mega-comedy It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 1963.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) -- (Movie Clip) There's All This Dough After director Stanley Kramer’s opening car wreck, he rolls out comic all-stars, Milton Berle and Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett, then Jonathan Winters, Ethel Merman left behind, scrambling to dying Jimmy Durante, as “Smiler,” and a premise, in It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 1963.
Under The Yum-Yum Tree (1963) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Compatibility Robert Tucker was the choreographer and Dale Hennesy the production designer for the memorable dance opening for Under The Yum Yum Tree, 1963, starring Dean Jones, Carol Lynley and Jack Lemmon.
Under The Yum Yum Tree -- (Movie Clip) Horrible Female Things Chauvinism and comedy as maid Dorkus (Imogene Coca) shows professor Irene (Edie Adams) she's been tricked by ex-beau and landlord Hogan (Jack Lemmon) whom she then attacks at the barber shop in Under The Yum Yum Tree, 1963.
Call Me Bwana -- (Movie Clip) Checking The Oil Fake Africa expert Merriwether (Bob Hope) on a secret government mission in Africa, with spy Luba (Anita Ekberg) and a modest elephant, in Call Me Bwana, 1963.

Trailer

Companions

Ernie Kovacs
Husband
Entertainer, comedian. Died 1962.
Peter Candoli
Husband
Married c. 1972; former husband of Betty Hutton.

Bibliography