Edie Adams

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Edie Adams
Born Elizabeth Edith Enke
April 16, 1927(1927-04-16)
Kingston, Pennsylvania,
United States
Died October 15, 2008 (aged 81)
Los Angeles, California,
United States
Other name(s) Edith Adams
Occupation Actor
Spouse(s) Ernie Kovacs (1954-1962)
Marty Mills (1964)
Pete Candoli (1972-1989)

Edie Adams (April 16, 1927 – October 15, 2008) was an American singer, Broadway, television and film actress and comedienne. Adams, a Tony Award winner, "both embodied and winked at the stereotypes of fetching chanteuse and sexpot blonde."[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Adams was born Edith Elizabeth Enke in Kingston, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey.[2]

She earned a vocal degree from the Juilliard School of Music, and then graduated from Columbia School of Drama. In 1950, she won the "Miss U.S. Television" beauty contest, which led to an appearance with Milton Berle on his television show.[1] Her earliest television work billed her as Edith Adams.

Adams began working regularly on television with comedian Ernie Kovacs and talk show pioneer Jack Paar. Kovacs was a noted cigar smoker, and Adams did a long-running series of TV commercials for Muriel Cigars. She remained the pitch-lady for Muriel well after Kovacs' death, intoning in a Mae West style and sexy outfit, "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?"[1] Another commercial for Muriel cigars, which cost ten cents, showed Adams singing, "Hey, big spender, spend a little dime with me" (based on the song, "Hey Big Spender" from the musical "Sweet Charity.") Kovacs' network, ABC, gave Adam a chance with her own show, Here's Edie, which received five Emmy nominations but nevertheless was on for only one season. She made sporadic television appearances, including on Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, and Designing Women.[1]

Adams starred on Broadway in Wonderful Town (1953) opposite Rosalind Russell (winning the Theatre World Award), and as Daisy Mae in Li'l Abner (1956), winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She played the Fairy Godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's original 1957 Cinderella broadcast.

Adams played supporting roles in several films in the 1960s, including the bitter secretary of two-timing Fred MacMurray in the Oscar-winning film The Apartment (1960). In 2003, as one of the surviving headliners from the all-star comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, she joined actors Marvin Kaplan and Sid Caesar at 40th anniversary celebration of the movie. She was also a favorite nightclub headliner.

Adams married Ernie Kovacs on September 12, 1954, in what was Kovacs' second marriage; they remained together until his death in a car accident on January 13, 1962, after which she won a "nasty custody battle" over her stepdaughters, Betty and Kippie.[2] She also worked for years to pay off Kovacs' massive back-taxes debt to the IRS.

Adams had two later marriages, briefly to photographer Martin Mills and then to trumpeter Pete Candoli. She gave birth to two children: a daughter, Mia Kovacs, who was born in 1959 and killed in an automobile accident in 1982, and a son, Joshua Mills.[2]

Edie Adams died in Los Angeles, California at age 81. According to her son, the causes were cancer and pneumonia.[1][2]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television

  • Ernie in Kovacsland (1951) (canceled after 2 months)
  • The Ernie Kovacs Show (1952–1956)
  • The Guy Lombardo Show (1956)
  • Cinderella (1957)
  • Lucy Meets the Moustache (1960)
  • Take a Good Look (panelist from 1960–1961)
  • Here's Edie (1963–1964)
  • Evil Roy Slade (1972)
  • Cop on the Beat (1975)
  • Superdome (1978)
  • Fast Friends (1979)
  • The Seekers (1979)
  • Make Me an Offer (1980)
  • Portrait of an Escort (1980)
  • A Cry for Love (1980)
  • The Haunting of Harrington House (1981)
  • As the World Turns (cast member in 1982)
  • Shooting Stars (1983)
  • Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter (1984)
  • Adventures Beyond Belief (1987)
  • Jake Spanner, Private Eye (1989)
  • Tales of the City (1993) (miniseries)

[edit] Films

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Weber, Bruce (2008-10-16). "Edie Adams, Actress and Singer (and Flirt With a Cigar), Dies at 81", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-16. 
  2. ^ a b c d "Singer, Muriel cigar beauty Edie Adams dies at 81", Associated Press, CNN. Retrieved on 2008-10-16. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical

Juanita Hall (1950) · Isabel Bigley (1951) · ) · Helen Gallagher (1952) · Sheila Bond (1953) · Gwen Verdon (1954) · Carol Haney (1955) · Lotte Lenya (1956) · Edie Adams (1957) · Barbara Cook (1958) · Pat Stanley (1959) · Patricia Neway (1960) · Tammy Grimes (1961) · Phyllis Newman (1962) · Anna Quayle (1963) · Tessie O'Shea (1964) · Maria Karnilova (1965) · Beatrice Arthur (1966) · Peg Murray (1967) · Lillian Hayman (1968) · Marian Mercer (1969) · Melba Moore (1970) · Patsy Kelly (1971) · Linda Hopkins (1972) · Patricia Elliott (1973) · Janie Sell (1974) · Dee Dee Bridgewater (1975)
Persondata
NAME Adams, Edie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Enke, Elizabeth Edith
SHORT DESCRIPTION American singer
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Kingston, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 2008
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles, California
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edie_Adams"
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