Sam Adams, a literary agents whose career started in the postwar years of Warner Bros. and ended with a deal to bring about. The Handmaid’s TaleTo the big screen, has passed away, according to Multiple Reports. He was 94.
Adams’ client list included Handmaid’sPeter Bogdanovich was recently buried by Margaret Atwood. Saturday Night FeverDirector John Badham, TV king Stephen J. Cannell and Oscar-winner Alvin Sargent CasablancaStar Paul Henreid & Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer
Adams began his career in Hollywood while still attending Beverly Hills High School. He delivered messages at Warner Bros. Humphrey Bogart met Errol Flynn and Bette Davis at Warners. After 18 months of active military duty, his stint at Warners was cut short.
He went on to journalism and worked for the William Randolph Hearst. Los Angeles ExaminerThe Armed Forces Radio Services is the Beverly Hills PressFinal words The Hollywood Reporter.
“I wanted to beat the game and figured out to get around the trade contacts,”Adams said Forward2016 “I realized the agencies and law offices were a better source of show business news than the studios.”
He continued, “I got in with the agents, and Sam Jaffe saw I also wrote reviews of theater and opera, that my reviews were more literate than average, and in 1956 Sam offered me a gig as a junior agent at the Jaffe Agency. An agent? Okay, that wasn’t my plan. But Sam represented everybody from Lauren Bacall to Zero Mostel, and he saw a useful place for me at his agency making deals for those writing for TV.”
Adams later worked for Ingo (Otto’s brother) Preminger at PSF, which repped writers, producers and composers.
“Ingo was really my mentor in my life,”He stated.
After Preminger’s sale of the agency to General Artists Corp., Jaffe returned to Jaffe. Sam Jaffe had already retired. Phil Gersh took over the operation. The Gersh Agency was later named after Gersh. Adams decided to go it alone shortly after.
“My firm was originally called Adams & Ray in 1963, but we added Lee Rosenberg in 1964, to become Adams, Ray & Rosenberg,”He stated. “As an agent I negotiated deals involving Klute, Caddyshack, Oklahoma Crude and Saturday Night Fever.”
The agency became part Triad Artists’ in 1984 and was later acquired by William Morris.
Adams married Kathleen McIntosh in 1986, after his first wife, who died in 1975.
“A couple of years later we visited New Mexico,” Adams explained, “and impulsively bought a house in Santa Fe. That was it for L.A.”
They moved in 1989. He retired in 1990.
Adams is survived by his wife Kathleen, daughters Rachel and Olivia, and grandchildren Noah and Henry.