Dawn Addams

Victoria Dawn Addams (21 September 1930 – 7 May 1985) was an English actress, particularly in Hollywood motion pictures of the 1950s and on British television in the 1960s and 1970s.

Dawn Addams
Addams with Alan Young in the television show Time to Smile, 1953.
Born
Victoria Dawn Addams

(1930-09-21)21 September 1930
Felixstowe, Suffolk, England
Died7 May 1985(1985-05-07) (aged 54)
London, England
OccupationActress
Years active1951–83
Spouse(s)
Don Vittorio Emanuele Massimo, Prince of Roccasecca (m. 1954⁠–⁠1971)
(2 children)
Jimmy White (1974–1985) (her death)
Children2[1][2]

Early years

Addams was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, the daughter of Ethel Mary (née Hickie) and Captain James Ramage Addams,[3] of the Royal Air Force. Her mother died when she was young,[4] and she spent her early life in Calcutta, India.

Career
Dawn Addams and
Susan Cabot, 1953

Addams' face and physique attracted the attention of talent agents. In December 1950, she signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.[5] Her film career began with a role in Night into Morning (1951), and her subsequent MGM films included Singin' In The Rain (1952), Plymouth Adventure (1952), Young Bess (1953) and the female lead opposite Peter Lawford in The Hour of 13 (1952). She played David Niven's daughter in The Moon Is Blue (1953), a film which helped loosen the system of censorship of Hollywood which had been in place since 1934. She also embarked on a USO tour the same year to help entertain troops in Korea. She worked steadily in films during the remainder of the 1950s, including a heavily publicised role as Richard Carlson's model girlfriend in the science fiction film Riders to the Stars (1954) and the female lead opposite actor-director-filmmaker legend Charlie Chaplin in his final comedy to star himself, A King in New York (1957). During the 1960s and 1970s, she appeared mainly in British TV shows and French films.

She was a semi-regular on the instructional series En France (1962) and the leading lady in several episodes of The Saint (1962–69), which starred Roger Moore as Simon Templar. Among her last film credits were two British horror films, The Vampire Lovers (1970) and The Vault of Horror (1973), and she was also a regular in the British sitcom Father, Dear Father (1971–1973).[6] One of her last television roles was in the science fiction serial Star Maidens (1977).[7] Addams retired in the early 1980s, dividing her remaining years between Europe and the United States.

Personal life

She first married Don Vittorio Emanuele Massimo, Prince of Roccasecca, in 1954,[8] in a wedding that was the subject of a cover story in Life magazine.[9] They separated four years later, though they did not formally divorce until 1971.

Death

Addams died in 1985 in a London hospital at age 54 from cancer.[8]

Partial filmography

Films

Television
  • Sherlock Holmes series in "The Case of the Careless Suffragette" (aired 28 February 1955)
  • The Saint Season 2, episode 1 (The Fellow Traveller-9/19/1963) as Magda Varnoff, Season 2, episode 20 (The Lawless Lady-1/30/1964) as Audrey & Season 5, episode 1 (The Queen's Ransom-9/30/1966) as Queen Adana.
  • Danger Man series 2, episode 8 – "The Battle of the Cameras" (aired UK 1 December 1964), as Martine, working for Mr Kent esq. Additionally, she appeared in Season 2 Episode 6 "Fish on the Hook".
  • A Room in Town[10], Sept 1970, with George Cole and Pauline Yates
  • Father, Dear Father (1971–1973)
  • Star Maidens (1977)

References
  1. Burgess, Patricia; Turner, Roland (1988). The Annual Obituary. St. Martin's. p. 221.
  2. "Dawn Addams". Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  3. "Dawn Addams Biography (1930–1985)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  4. Cotter, Robert Michael “Bobb” (2013). The Women of Hammer Horror: A Biographical Dictionary and Filmography. McFarland. pp. 7–8. ISBN 9781476602011. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  5. "English Actress' Contract Okeyed [sic]". Arizona Daily Star. Arizona, Tucson. Associated Press. 8 December 1950. p. 30. Retrieved 11 May 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Dawn Addams". BFI.
  7. "Dawn Addams - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie.
  8. Walter Waggoner (9 May 1985). "Dawn Addams, 54, Actress is Dead". The New York Times.
  9. "Once upon a time ... a pretty girl met a prince". Life. 17 May 1954. pp. 131–134, 136. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  10. "BFI Screenonline: Room in Town, A (1970)". www.screenonline.org.uk.
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