Nick Adams (actor)

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Nick Adams (actor) : biography

July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968

Later published speculation

Adams’s sexuality

Decades later, Adams’ highly publicized life and death at a young age and his friendships with cultural icons such as James Dean and Elvis Presley along with his reported drug consumption made his private life the subject of many reports and assertions by some writers who have claimed Adams may have been gay or bisexual and may have had intimate relationships with both Dean and Presley. One of the earliest published mentions on this overall topic was made by gossip columnist Rona Barrett in her 1974 autobiography, in which she made no assertion Adams was homosexual or bisexual but claimed Adams had told her, along with a "whole roomful of people — that he wasn’t making it because no one in Hollywood’s upper stratosphere would accept his wife." Barrett wrote, "This was untrue. She was one of the most refreshing wives in the entire community", and went on to say Adams "had become the companion to a group of salacious homosexuals" who flattered the actor, which affected his judgment and caused him to blame Carol.Barret, Miss Rona (1974) Hollywood biographer Lawrence J. Quirk claimed Mike Connolly (a gay gossip columnist for the Hollywood Reporter from 1951 to 1966) "would put the make on the most prominent young actors, including Robert Francis, Guy Madison, Anthony Perkins, Nick Adams, and James Dean."See Val Holley, Mike Connolly and the Manly Art of Hollywood Gossip (2003), p.22. According to American Film (1986), "Nick Adams, who was … gay, was the butt of anti-gay humor in Pillow Talk.See American Film, published by the American Film Institute, 1986, p.48. In a recent book, William Dakota, who worked as Adams’s fan-mail secretary for some time, confirms that Adams was homosexual.See William Dakota, The Gossip Columnist (2010), chapter on Nick Adams.

Some writers later called Adams a "Hollywood hustler" or a "street hustler."Leigh W. Rutledge, The Gay Book of Lists (2003), p.27. Rutledge writes that James Dean "claimed to have worked, with his friend Nick Adams, as a street hustler after he first arrived in Hollywood." One journalist also refers to Adams as a pool hustler who made money in pool halls when he was a teenager in New Jersey and later while struggling to make ends meet during his early years in Hollywood.cybersleuths.com, Bill Kelly, , retrieved 30 December 2007, Kelly notes Adams "…grew up in the smoky pool halls of Jersey City" and later in Hollywood "…fell back on his old skills as a pool hustler, his means of survival in Jersey City."

Friendship with Dean and Presley

It is uncertain whether James Dean and Adams met before his service in the US Coast Guard (1952–1955) and subsequent role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). In his 1986 gossip book about gay Hollywood, Conversations With My Elders, Boze Hadleigh claimed actor Sal Mineo told him in 1972, "I didn’t hear it from Jimmy (James Dean), who was sort of awesome to me when we did Rebel. But Nick told me they had a big affair." Journalist, screenwriter and author of books about Hollywood, John Gregory Dunne wrote that "James Dean was bisexual, as were Nick Adams and Sal Mineo."John Gregory Dunne, Regards: The Selected Nonfiction of John Gregory Dunne (2005), p.242. In his book Elvis (1981) Albert Goldman wrote, "Nick Adams ingratiated himself with James Dean precisely as he would do a year or so later with Elvis. He offered himself to the shy, emotionally contorted and rebellious Dean, as a friend, a guide, a boon companion, a homosexual lover — whatever role or service Dean required." According to Eric Braun, "Elvis was attracted by Adams’ outgoing personality and the young actors caused quite a stir, cruising round Los Angeles with Natalie Wood, Russ Tamblyn and others on their Hondas.".See Eric Braun, Frightening the Horses: Gay Icons of the Cinema (2002), p.186. In 2005 Byron Raphael and Presley biographer Alanna Nash wrote that Adams may have "swung both ways" like "Adams’ good pal (and Elvis’ idol) James Dean. Tongues wagged that Elvis and Adams were getting it on."Byron Raphael with Alanna Nash, "In Bed with Elvis", Playboy, November 2005, Vol. 52, Iss. 11. Adams’s former fan-mail secretary, William Dakota, confirms these claims saying that Elvis was bisexual and that he had a sexual relationship with Adams.See Dakota, The Gossip Columnist (2010). On Adams’s somewhat bizarre relationship with Presley (and Natalie Wood), see also Alanna Nash, Baby, Let’s Play House (2010).