Tom Adams obit

Tom Adams: Actor best known for 'The Great Escape' who was touted to play James Bond but had to settle for lesser spy films

One ad declared that the deal offered was the best around, ‘or my name’s not Tom Adams’

 

He was not on the list.

The screen career of Tom Adams had a notable early boost as one of the RAF inmates devising tunnelling systems in the perennial classic war film. The Great Escape (1963). Shortly afterwards, the heavily built, darkly handsome Adams benefited from the Sixties spy boom instigated by the James Bond franchise, starring in several espionage caper films. Belying modest origins in London’s East End, he was almost always well-dressed on screen, and possessed a finely modulated speaking voice.
After several lead roles in television series there was press speculation in 1980 that “the boy from Bow” was about to play Bond for real, but it was not to be. Settling for life as a jobbing actor, Adams made the most of a succession of television advertisements for carpets, furniture and chocolates; a print ad spinning off from the first had a strapline assuring consumers this was the best deal imaginable, “or my name’s not Tom Adams”.

He made his earliest forays into acting while teaching English and drama at Cardinal Griffin school in Poplar. He made two appearances, as a constable and a henchman, in the largely wiped first series of The Avengers in 1961, which was then a straightforward thriller series. In its more well-remembered mode he made another episode in 1969 as an urbane villain, directed in full eerie alienation mode by Robert Fuest (Independent obituary, 25 April 2012). Being directed by Michael Winner in an unbilled bit part in Play It Cool (1962) was presumably the cinematic equivalent of a blooding.

He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962 as one of an infusion of new actors into Michael Elliott’s production of As You Like It at the Aldwych. Another newcomer was Patrick Allen, replacing Ian Bannen as Orlando; in recent years Adams was an incongruous narrator for the young persons’ digital channel E4, as Allen had been until his death.

His role in The Great Escape was sufficiently small for him not to be one of the pairs of characters that director John Sturges favoured. Sturges told the fair-haired, youthfully handsome pop star John Leyton that he would be paired with Charles Bronson to create contrast, as Bronson was “an ugly bastard”. Later, Adams said of the inexpressive star that Bronson “was a monster... He should have been in horror films.” He recalled the nightlife while filming in Munich as more enjoyable – as was observing Steve McQueen jockeying for top position.

In November 1965 it was announced that Adams had signed a three-picture deal with Joseph E Levine’s Embassy Pictures, commencing with Licensed To Kill (1965). Adams, as secret agent Charles Vine, and director Lindsay Shonteff, attempted to evoke Cubby Broccoli’s ethos on a fraction of the budget. One of Vine’s female distractions was Judy Huxtable, shortly to marry Peter Cook, while another was Claire Gordon, whose husband was William Donaldson, Cook’s producer in Beyond The Fringe. Never one to stint on publicity, Levine retitled it The Second Best Secret Agent In The Whole Wide World for its US release, adding a theme song, mentioning “the whole wide bloomin’ world”, performed by Sammy Davis Jr.

Shonteff did not make either of the sequels, but kept making Bond pastiches until 1990. Where The Bullets Fly (1966) had Adams with by an assortment of Hammer and Carry On faces, headed by Sid James, who received a crate of Scotch as payment for his cameo. A dubbed Spanish cast supported Adams in Somebody’s Stolen Our Russian Spy (1967, released in 1976), which found its way on to afternoon screenings by ITV regions the following decade.

A bigger credit was for Time Present by John Osborne, starring the playwright’s then wife Jill Bennett as a haunted actress, with Adams as one of her theatrical hangers-on. Opening at the Royal Court in 1968, it transferred to the Duke of York’s. In a Max Miller-styled costume he played Feste in Twelfth Night at the Ludlow Festival in 1975, where Olivia was Gayle Hunnicutt, with whom he undertook fund-raising recitals for the Spina Bifida Association in 1980, while Sebastian was Peter Gilmore, whose rival he played in The Onedin Line (1977-80).

 

TV and filmography 

A Chance of Thunder (1961, TV series) .... Evans 

The Avengers (1961-1969, TV Series) .... PC Butterworth / Rayner / Grenville 

A Pair of Briefs (1962) .... Wheelchair attendant (uncredited) 

Play It Cool (1962) .... Reporter #2 (uncredited) 

A Prize of Arms (1962) .... Corporal Glenn 

The Great Escape (1963) .... Dai Nimmo, "Diversions" 

This Is My Street (1964) .... Paul 

Emergency – Ward 10 (1964, TV Series) .... Mr. Guy Marshall 

The Peaches (1964, British short subject) .... The Boy 

Z-Cars (1965, TV Series) .... Steve 

R3 (1965,TV Series) .... John Rawlins 

Licensed to Kill (1965) .... Charles Vine 

The Spies (1966, TV Series) .... Stefan 

Where the Bullets Fly (1966) .... Charles Vine 

The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966) .... Henry O'Neill 

Fathom (1967) .... Mike 

Subterfuge (1968) .... Peter Langley 

O.K. Yevtushenko (1968) .... Charles Vine 

Journey to Midnight (1968) .... Jerry Crown (segment "The Indian Spirit Guide") 

Strange Report (1969, TV Series) .... Clinton 

UFO (1970, Episode: "The Psychobombs") .... Captain Lauritzen 

The House That Dripped Blood (1970) .... Richard / Dominic (segment 1 "Method for Murder") 

Von Richthofen and Brown aka The Red Baron (1971) .... Owen 

The Persuaders! (1971, TV Series) .... Piers Emerson 

The Fast Kill (1972) .... Max Stein 

The Daredevil Men (1972, British short subject) .... Unidentified leading man 

Dixon of Dock Green (1972-1976, TV Series) .... Charlie Mann / Johnny Orwell / Jack Montelbetti 

Madigan (1972–1973, TV Series) .... Detective Jaqueta 

Spy Trap (1973) .... Major Sullivan 

General Hospital (1975–1978, TV Series) .... Dr. Guy Wallman 

The Onedin Line (1977–1979, TV Series) .... Daniel Fogarty 

The Enigma Files (1980, TV Series) .... Det Chief Insp Nick Lewis 

Doctor Who (1984, TV Series) .... Commander Vorshak 

Remington Steele (1984, TV Series) .... Richard Moreland 

Strike It Rich! (1986–1987, TV Series) .... Ken Stevenson 

Pyrates (1991) .... Calico Jack (uncredited) 

Day of the Sirens (2002) .... Chat Show Host (final film role)