|
Best known for the role of Johnny
Yuma from the Rebel TV show and astronaut Glenn
from Invasion
of Astro-Monster (1965), Nick Adams is
one of the better known Toho actors of the Showa
era to American fans. Adams' first role in a Toho
film was that of Doctor James Bowen in Frankenstein
vs. Baragon (1965). Adams could hardly
speak Japanese, so, like other Caucasian actors
of his time, his lines were dubbed over in the
Japanese print of the film; furthermore, this
would also happen in his later two Toho films.
His next movie was Invasion
of Astro-Monster (1965), followed by The
Killing Bottle (1967), which was part of the
International Secret Police "Series".
Coincidentally, Adams starred alongside actress
Kumi Mizuno
in all three films, which caused rumors about
an affair between the two to blossom. Whether
these rumors are true or not is up for debate,
but Mizuno later admitted that Adams had actually
proposed to her, while he was staying in Japan,
but she turned him down as she already had a fiancé.
If there was more to the story than that, one
may never know, but unfortunately by the time
he got back to the states it had already severed
his marriage with actress Carol Nugent. A few
random pieces of trivia about Nick Adams is that
he was good friends with James Dean, and that
he received a supporting actor Oscar nomination
for his role in Twilight of Honor, which
he campaigned for feverishly and lost. Unfortunately
for fans, Adams died in 1968 from a drug overdose.
|
