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Nick Adams (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968) was an American film and television actor. He has been noted for his supporting roles in successful Hollywood films during the 1950s and 1960s along with his starring role in the ABC television series The Rebel (1959). Decades after Adams' death from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 36, his widely publicized friendships with James Dean and Elvis Presley would stir speculation about both his private life and the circumstances of his death. In an Allmovie synopsis for Adams' last film, reviewer Dan Pavlides wrote, "Plagued by... MORE

Nick Adams (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968) was an American film and television actor. He has been noted for his supporting roles in successful Hollywood films during the 1950s and 1960s along with his starring role in the ABC television series The Rebel (1959). Decades after Adams' death from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 36, his widely publicized friendships with James Dean and Elvis Presley would stir speculation about both his private life and the circumstances of his death. In an Allmovie synopsis for Adams' last film, reviewer Dan Pavlides wrote, "Plagued by personal excesses, he will be remembered just as much for what he could have done in cinema as what he left behind." Adams was born Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania to Peter Adamshock and Catherine Kutz. His father was a Ukrainian-born anthracite coal miner. In 1958 he told columnist Hedda Hopper, "We lived in those little company houses -- they were terrible. We had to buy from the company store and were always in debt and could never leave." The family did leave when he was five years old, after Adams' uncle was killed in a mining accident. "My father piled all our belongings into an LESS