Stanley Adams

Career overview

Stanley Adams was an American actor, television actor, film actor, and theatre actor who was born in New York City on April 7, 1915, and died on April 27, 1977, in Santa Monica. His birth name was Abramowitz. Throughout his career, he had a relatively minor career in motion pictures, with a notable exception being his role as the baby-faced millionaire Rusty Trawler in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's, which was released in 1961. In addition to that appearance, his film work consisted largely of playing innumerable minor ethnic villains, bartenders, and avuncular, fast-talking characters who were often known in the credits only by their first names, meaning most of his film roles were rather small.

In contrast to his smaller film parts, he proved to be a scene-stealer on television, particularly during the 1960s and early 1970s, when his face appeared on just about every major show. Among his television work, he was noted for his performance as the pool hustler Sure-shot Wilson in an episode of The Odd Couple, which aired in 1970, and as Rollo, described as a quirky time-traveling character. While he made guest appearances in many television series, he generally did not perform as an actor in the episodes that he wrote. Over the course of his career, he accumulated 150 known acting credits across film, television, and the stage before his death at the age of sixty-two.