OBITUARIES : Peter Adams; Had a Varied Acting Career

Peter Adams, a successful actor and businessman who spent what free time he had involved in charitable activities, has died.

The actor that Claudette Colbert referred to as her favorite stage husband was 69 and had been suffering from cancer when he died Thursday.

Adams was a descendant of an old California family who became attracted to acting while a student at Williams College. He began his career there in melodrama as the villain in a student production and ended it in a similar mode, being seen most recently on the soap operas “Dallas” and “General Hospital.”

Long Career

Interspersed through the years was a long career involving stage, films and television.

He appeared in a variety of parts in such pictures as “War of the Worlds,” “Ruby Gentry,” “Flat Top” and “Fighting Man.”

He was a regular on the old Laguna Summer Theater Series and toured nationally with Miss Colbert in “Community of Two” and “Marriage -Go Round.” He also was Kitty Carlyle’s stage husband in “Light Up the Sky” and enjoyed a lengthy local run as “Mister Roberts” at the Las Palmas Theater.

On television he was seen in the old “Zorro” series and appeared often on such early shows as “Lux Video Theatre,” “The Life of Riley,” “Perry Mason” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”

Adams, with his brother, also was a real estate developer. Their holdings include the Adams Plaza on Wilshire Boulevard near downtown. The firm recently contributed the sculpture garden at the new YMCA in downtown Los Angeles.

Charitable Work

He was a former president of the California Epilepsy Society and despite his illness continued to make tapes for the Braille Institute’s reading for the blind program.

In addition to his brother, Morgan, he is survived by his wife, Mary; a son, Peter; two daughters, Aileen and Mary, and four grandchildren.

The family asks contributions to a Peter Adams Memorial Scholarship Fund of the American Center for Music Theater, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, 90012, or the Los Angeles County Epilepsy Society, 2911 West 8th St., Los Angeles, 90005.

A memorial service is scheduled at 2 p.m. next Tuesday at the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church.