Ronald Adam (actor)

This article is about the actor, theatre director and RAF officer. For the British Army General, see Ronald Adam.

Ronald Adam (31 December 1896 – 28 March 1979), born Ronald George Hinings Adams, was a British RAF officer, an actor on stage and screen and a successful theatre manager.

Early life

Ronald George Hinings Adams was born in Worcestershire on 31 December 1896, the son of Blake Adams and his wife Mona Robin. His parents and grand-parents were all in the theatrical profession. He was educated at University College School.

When still only 17 years old Adams volunteered to join the British Army on the outbreak of the First World War. On 2 December 1914 he was commissioned as a temporary second Lieutenant in the 15th (reserve) battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. He then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) as an observer and undertook pilot training. Adams then served with 18 squadron and flew Sopwith Camels with 44 squadron on home defence duties. He then joined 73 squadron, also flying Sopwith Camels in France. On 7 April 1918 he was shot down near Villers-Bretonneux in Northern France, either by Hans Kirschstein, or possibly Manfred von Richthofen. Adams was wounded and captured and on the evening of his aerial defeat was visited by a German orderly who gave him von Richthofen's compliments. Ronald Adams spent eight months in hospitals and prison camps before he was re-repatriated on 17 December 1918.

Career in the theatre

After the war he trained as a chartered accountant, but his interest moved to theatre. He dropped the final "s" from his surname and adopted the stage name "Ronald Adam". From 1924–26, he was engaged as manager for Leslie Henson and Dion Titheradge, and at the Little, His Majesty's, and Strand Theatres; He entered on the management of the Embassy Theatre, in April 1932, with the production of Madame Pepita, and made over 150 new productions and revivals from 1932–1939. Thirty of his productions were transferred to various West End theatres, including Ten Minute Alibi, Close Quarters, The Dominant Sex, Professor Bernhardi, and Judgment Day. He presented several plays on tour, and acted in many of them, both at the Embassy and on their transfer.

He made his film debut with Strange Boarders, The Drum (both 1938) and Too Dangerous to Live (1939). Meanwhile he continued with live theatre. At the Old Vic in June 1939 he played Lord Stagmantle in The Ascent of F6 and at the Phoenix in November 1939, Judge Tsankov in Judgment Day. He was director of Howard and Wyndham's Repertory Seasons in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1938–9.

On the outbreak of the Second World War Ronald Adam rejoined the RAF as a Wing Commander and served from 1939–1945. During the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 he was the fighter controller for the Hornchurch sector. It was Adam's job to co-ordinate the fighter command interceptions by using data gathered by radar and ground observers and then to dispatch fighters to intercept.

During the war he continued to take part in films, for example as a German bomber chief in The Lion Has Wings (1939), as Mons. Besnard in At the Villa Rose (1940) and as Sir Charles Fawcett in The Foreman Went to France (1942).

Postwar period

He was awarded the OBE in 1946.

After 1946 he continued to act in live theatre. At the Garrick in March 1950 he played Mr Gibb in Mr Gillie.. He made his Broadway debut in December 1951 in Antony and Cleopatra at the Ziegfeld Theatre.

His main activity at this stage, however, was in film and television. From 1946 to 1978 he took part in over 140 film or television productions. A few of them are: Green for Danger (1946), Obsession (1949), Under Capricorn (1949), Seven Days to Noon (1950), Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Angels One Five (1952), Escape by Night (1953), The Black Knight (1954), Tons of Trouble (1956), Private's Progress (1956), Reach for the Sky (1956), Sea Wife (1957), The Surgeon's Knife (1957), Please Turn Over (1959), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959), The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), The Haunting (1963) and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964).

He married firstly Tanzi Cutava Barozzi; the marriage was dissolved. His second wife was Allyne Dorothy Franks. He had two children, Jane and David. After the Second World War Ronald Adam lived in Surbiton, Surrey, and died on 28 March 1979.

Written works

Adam was part-adaptor of Professor Bernhardi and The Melody That Got Lost, among other works. He was the author of the plays An English Summer (1948), A Wind on the Heath (1949), and Marriage Settlement (1950), which he also produced.

He published a book on his theatrical memories:

• Ronald Adam (1938). Overture and Beginners. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.

In the middle of the war he wrote two novels arising from his experiences in the RAF. Initially they were published using the pseudonym "Blake",

• Blake (1941). Readiness at Dawn. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.
• Blake (1942). We Rendezvous at Ten. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.

Both of these were later republished under his own name. He wrote again about his wartime experiences in:

• Blake (1948). To You the Torch. London: The Fortune Press. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

External links

• Please use a more specific IBDB template. See the documentation for available templates.