It turns out Julie Adams adds another data point to the “was Elvis a good actor?” discussion. She was in Tickle Me with him and says he was always prepared and careful, and he did his musical numbers in a single take. So that’s interesting to know. And Julie Adams over the years worked with a lot of people—her first film was Red, Hot and Blue, featuring such minor lights as Betty Hutton and Victor Mature. Her most recent film was Carnage, with Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly, though she voiced a secretary and probably didn’t actually meet Kate Winslet or Christoph Waltz.

Her start in Hollywood is from such a different time that she was able to support herself working three days a week as a secretary; you can’t even afford a place to live in Hollywood these days working full time. But the girl born Betty May Adams in Waterloo, Iowa, eventually signed a studio contract and was renamed Julia. She was still Julia when she did Creature From the Black Lagoon and changed it to Julie two movies later, because she never really liked the name Julia much.

She herself is aware that it doesn’t much matter what she does, because we’re always going to picture her in a white swimsuit, being menaced by the Gill-Man. And goodness knows she’s not wrong. Even though she made nearly fifty movies and twice as many TV shows before retiring from acting at the age of 84. In addition to the various awards she won for being iconic in the field of horror, she received an award for her services to Westerns, having appeared in such diverse examples of the genre as Maverick and The Lawless Breed.

Honestly, I think her range is severely underestimated. Yes, for one thing, she made the circuit of TV shows that you expect to find in the career of someone her age—she actually had a recurring character on Murder, She Wrote, for one, and did ten episodes. And she did Perry Mason four times, three episodes of Quincy M.E., a Diagnosis Murder, and so forth. But she was in the TV movie of Six Characters in Search of an Author. Three episodes of Lux Video Theatre. And, okay, a Francis the Talking Mule movie.

Actually, what surprised me was that her horror and sci-fi pedigree goes far beyond being menaced while wearing a white swimsuit. Yes, that episode of Sliders could be chalked up to nostalgia; a lot of her casting could. Probably that episode of The Incredible Hulk. Maybe even her appearance on the original Kolchak: the Night Stalker. But not necessarily Night Gallery. Definitely not Kraft Suspense Theater or Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She did a couple of movies in the genre, too. Yes, okay, I remember her from Creature first, too. But it isn’t the only reason to remember her, and it’s worth mentioning that while she’s still alive.

I’m not as prolific as she is, but I do provide a lot of content.  Consider sponsoring it on Patreon!