Villain of the Month: Ted Adams
Ted Adams had show business in his blood. The child of vaudeville performers, he was born on the road, spent his childhood traveling with his parents and became part of the act as he grew older. After attending college, Adams went on to appear on stage in New York before coming to films in the late twenties with The Road Agent (1926). With the coming of sound, Adams came into his own and had a long, prolific career playing villains in low budget westerns like Rider of the Plains (1931), Rustler’s Valley (1937), Swing Cowboy Swing (1946) and Night Riders of Montana (1951).
Adams also had a prolific career in serials, starting with playing a henchman in Mascot’s The Fighting Marines (1935), Adams played henchmen in serials for all of the big serial producers, with appearances in the Weiss Brothers’ Custer’s Last Stand (1936) and The Black Coin (1936). Universal cast him as a henchman in their million dollar serial Riders of Death Valley (1941).
But it was at Republic and Columbia that Adams became a mainstay. Rebublic used Adams in The Lone Ranger (1938), Daredevils of the West (1943), Son of Zorro (1947), Dangers of the Canaadian Mounted (1948) and King of the Rocket Men (1949). Starting with The Mysterious Pilot (1937), he went on to appear in the Columbia serials Secret of Treasure island (1938), Holt of the Secret Service (1941), Jungle Raiders (1945) and The Vigilante (1947).
During the fifties Adams went onto appear on popular TV shows like The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, Craig kennedy Criminalogist, and Cowboy G-Men before retiring from acting at 62.
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