Julie Adams

It is true that Julie Adams became famous as a result of the premiere of The Woman and the Monster , a kind of version of the classic “Beauty and the Beast” in the style of cheap horror from the 50s of the last century. The film praised the figure of female beauty, her delicacy and her vulnerability. However, it is curious that the best Julie Adams films she would have filmed before her and that, from the 1960s, her career was incomprehensibly relegated to minor roles in television serials. Movie mysteries.

Betty May Adams –real name of Julie Adams– was born on October 17, 1926 in Waterloo, Iowa. The young woman grew up in Arkansas and very soon began acting at school, where she participated in plays such as “Hansel and Gretel ”. She, already grown, went to Los Angeles determined to become a Hollywood actress. She worked as a secretary and in her free time she received diction classes, while at the same time she appeared in all the castings that she could. At age 23 she landed her first Paramount role in the film Red, Hot and Blue (1949), although her name was not included in the credits. But the same year she shot under the name of Betty Adams the western The Dalton Gang, in which the actress had a leading role. She worked under her real name in 1950 in other western films without much quality, such as Crooked River , Colorado Ranger or Fast on the Draw . Later the actress had a great opportunity to work for Universal and it was this producer who decided to change her name to Julia, which later became the softer “Julie”.

After the film noir Hollywood Story (1951), starring Richard Conte , and accompanying Arthur Kennedy in the western New Dawn (1951), directed by Mark Robson ( The Harder the Fall ), the actress shot what is probably the best film of his career. We are referring to Far Horizons (1952), a memorable film by Anthony Mann with James Stewart starring . The actress gave life to Laura Baile, in love on the screen with Mann’s fetish actor.

The actress seemed installed in the genre of the West. She stood out with Rock Hudson Story of a Condemned Man (1953), an entertaining film with touches of adventure and romantic melodrama. That same year she filmed The Knight from the Mississippi with Tyrone Power , and also the formidable B – series western The Alamo deserter , a magnificent example of the skill of craftsman Budd Boetticher . Julie Adams was accompanied by Glenn Ford , who played a cowboy of great bravery and honor.

From then on, the actress changed register and cultivated other genres, although her films slipped dangerously towards low-budget projects. She shot the aforementioned The Woman and the Monster (1954); the comedy Francis Joins the WACS (1954); the crime thriller Heist without Tracks (1955), with Tony Curtis ; the drama His only wish From her (1955), in the company of Anne Baxter ; the familiar The Private War of Major Benson (1955); or the warlike Zafarrancho de combat (1956), by Joseph Pevney .

Subsequently, the actress would stop leading renowned films and would increasingly participate in television projects with very little experience. Although she would still intersperse film work with a certain entity, such as The Sheriff of Dodge City (1959), with Joel McCrea . Among the series where she appeared with some continuity during the 60s and 70s we can mention Cheyenne , Maverick , Hitchcock Presents , Perry Mason or Murder, She Wrote . However, most of her work consisted of small appearances in single chapters in numerous serials. Her last films with some depth are McQ (1974), withJohn Wayne , or the way back (1990), together with Dennis Hooper. Julie Adams was married twice, but both times divorced. From her second marriage two sons were born, Steve and Mitchell.