Abigail Adams

Biography

Better known for her rather tumultuous personal life than any screen role, brunette Abigail Adams (born Margaret Adams) was voted the "typical American girl" by that arbiter of female pulchritude, Harry Conover. The ensuing notoriety landed the South Carolinian a position as Ella Logan's understudy in the long running (1941-1943) Broadway musical Sons O' Fun and, in time, a contract with MGM. Although known primarily for her cheesecake layouts and a notorious four-year marriage to veteran actor Lyle Talbot, Adams did find time to decorate such films as Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1944), Colorado Serenade (1946), and Trapped By Boston Blackie (1948) before landing the title role in a Grade-B musical from Columbia Pictures, Mary Lou. It proved her cinematic farewell but she kept popping up in the gossip pages, primarily for attempting suicide in 1950 and for a long-running and highly volatile relationship with Broadway legend George Jessel. Her death in 1955 was caused by an overdose of seconal. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi