Neile Adams

About Neile Adams

Who is it?: Actress, Soundtrack, Producer
Birth Year: 1932
Birth Place:  Manila, Philippines, Philippines
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1952–present
Spouse(s): Steve McQueen (m. 1956; div. 1972) Alvin Toffel (m. 1980; d. 2005)
Children: 2, including Chad McQueen
Relatives: Steven R. McQueen (grandson) Isabel Preysler (niece)

Neile Adams

Neile Adams was born on 1932 in  Manila, Philippines, Philippines, is Actress, Soundtrack, Producer. Neile Adams was born in Manila, the Philippine Islands on July 10, 1932. She was born María Ruby Neilam Arrastia y Salvador of Eurasian descent as her DNA attests. Her bloodline, to clarify erroneous reports, consists of 26% mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian, 7% Polynesian and 67% Spanish from the Basque Country (that is to say Catalonia, Barcelona, etc.) and English , although my maternal grandmother's name was changed from Schultz to Sulse when that family emigrated to Spain from Germany. She spent WW2 in Japanese -occupied Manila, came to America in 1948, graduated high school the following year from Rosemary Hall (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Greenwich, Connecticut and immediately went to New York to study dancing where she got a scholarship at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance. To ward off being cast exclusively as a "señorita" or in just plain old Spanish-speaking parts because of her name, her mother said Adams was her father's middle name. Never having seen nor met her father she soon became Neile Adams. In 1953 she was cast as a dancer in "Kismet" and shortly became one of the lead dancers in the show. When the show closed in 1955 she was offered a showy role in the Versailles Nightclub where George Abbot and Bob Fosse caught her performance and offered her the Carol Haney role in "The Pajama Gave" just as soon as her contract ended with the club. To meet both deadlines she performed at night and rehearsed during the day. She met Steve McQueen shortly thereafter and married four months after their formal introduction. The couple had two children, Terry Leslie born in 1959 and a son Chadwick Steven born in 1960. Their marriage ended in 1972. Neile is the grandmother of actor Steve R. McQueen. She remarried in 1980 to Alvin Toffel, apolitical campaign manager and president of the Norton Simon Museum. This union lasted until Toffel's passing in 2005.Broadway credits: featured dancer in "Kismet", starred in "Pajama Game" opposite John Raitt and Julie Wilson and Broadway-bound "At The Grand" opposite Paul Muni. She married then-struggling actor while filming MGM's "This Could Be The Night" when she was under contract. Adams opened the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas in 1958 with Dick Shawn and Viviane Blane. Television Revues became her main staple as she raised her family. "The Perry Como Show" The Bob Hope Shows" "The Pat Boone Show," "The Patrice Munsel Show" "The Eddie Fisher Show" "The Walter Winchell". She played opposite her husband and Peter Lorre in a Hitchcock and starred in two more Hitchcock shows. In the 70's she guest-starred in almost all the dramatic shows like "Man From Uncle," "Vegas" "Fantasy Island" "Rockford Files" "The Bionic Woman" "Love American Style" to name a few. In the 80's she played Burt Reynolds' wife in "Fuzz", was directed by Billy Wilder in "Buddy, Buddy", appeared in "Chu Chu and the Philly Flash" Neile Adams today performs her cabaret shows in L.A., New York, London, and Paris.
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Biography/Timeline

1932

Adams was born in Manila, Philippines in 1932. Her mother, Carmen Salvador, was a hula Dancer. Her father, José Arrista, was a maternal great-grandfather of Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias. As a child, during the Japanese army's occupation of Manila during World War II, she became a spy for the Philippine resistance, carrying messages between guerilla groups. She was later wounded by shrapnel during the Allied liberation of the island.

1956

Adams' Broadway credits include: Featured Dancer in Kismet, starred in Pajama Game opposite John Raitt and Julie Wilson, and Broadway-bound At The Grand opposite Paul Muni. She married then-struggling actor Steve McQueen four months after their meeting in 1956 while filming MGM’s This Could Be the Night (1957) where she was under contract. Adams opened the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas in 1958 with Dick Shawn and Vivian Blaine.

1972

Her other screen credits include Women in Chains (1972), Fuzz (1972), Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981), and Buddy Buddy (1981). Her television credits include: The Perry Como Show, two Bob Hope Christmas specials, The Eddie Fisher Show, The Patrice Munsel Show, The Pat Boone Show and The Hollywood Palace. Her dramatic television roles include a 1960 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, titled "Man From the South", opposite her husband and Peter Lorre. Two more Alfred Hitchcock episodes followed: a half-hour show directed by Arthur Hiller in which she starred, "One Grave Too Many", and an Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode entitled "Ten Minutes From Now". She also appeared on episodes of such television series as Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Rockford Files, The Bionic Woman, Fantasy Island, and Vega$.

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