Dawn Addams

Acting

Dawn Addams

Born 1930-09-21 · Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, UK

Victoria Dawn Addams (21 September 1930 – 7 May 1985) was a British actress, particularly in Hollywood motion pictures of the 1950s and on British television in the 1960s and 1970s. She became a princess in 1954 (until 1971). Addams was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, the daughter of Ethel Mary (née Hickie) and Captain James Ramage Addams, of the Royal Air Force. Her mother died when she was young, and she spent her early life in Calcutta, India. Addams' face and physique attracted the attention of talent agents. In December 1950, she signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. 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). One of her last television roles was in the science fiction serial Star Maidens (1977). Addams retired in the early 1980s, dividing her remaining years between Europe and the United States. She married Don Vittorio Emanuele Massimo, Prince of Roccasecca, in 1954; the wedding was the subject of a cover story in Life magazine. They separated four years later, though they did not formally divorce until 1971. Their son, Prince Stefano (b.1955), married Atalanta Foxwell, daughter of film producer Ivan Foxwell and Lady Edith (Lambart), granddaughter of the 9th Earl of Cavan. In 1974 she married retired businessman Jimmy White. Addams died in 1985 in a London hospital at age 54 from lung cancer.

Acting credits

Singin' in the Rain poster
8.1

In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his paranoid screen partner struggle to make the difficult transition to talking pictures.

Singin' in the Rain

1952

The Robe poster
6.8

Drunk and disillusioned Roman, Marcellus Gallio, wins Jesus' robe in a dice game after the crucifixion. Marcellus has never been a man of faith like his slave, Demetrius, but when Demetrius escapes with the robe, Marcellus experiences disturbing visions and feels guilty for his actions. Convinced that destroying the robe will cure him, Marcellus sets out to find Demetrius — and discovers his Christian faith along the way.

The Robe

1953

The Black Tulip poster
6.3

Aristocrat Guillaume de Saint Preux leads a double life as a masked bandit known as the Black Tulip. The Black Tulip only robs rich aristocrats, so the local peasants regard him as a hero. Baron La Mouche is convinced Guillaume is the Tulip. During a robbery, he scars the Tulip's face, and hopes to use this to expose Guillaume, but Guillaume is one step ahead.

The Black Tulip

1964

The Vampire Lovers poster
6.4

In the heart of Styria the Karnstein Family, even after their mortal deaths, rise from their tombs spreading evil in the countryside in their lust for fresh blood. Baron Hartog whose family are all victims of Karnstein vampirism, opens their graves and drives a stake through their diabolical hearts. One grave he cannot locate is that of the legendary beautiful Mircalla Karnstein. Years of peace follow that grisly night until Mircalla reappears to avenge her family's decimation and satisfy her desire for blood.

The Vampire Lovers

1970

Come Dance with Me! poster
6.1

Handsome dentist Herve Dandieu, temporarily separated from his delectable new wife Virginie by a lovers' tiff, is picked up by sexy dance teacher Anita Flores. Sensing trouble, Virginie follows him, only to find him circumstantially incriminated in murder. Soon, the dance school has a gorgeous new instructress, whose slightly scatterbrained attempts to clear her husband's name confuse both police and suspects...and bringing potential danger.

Come Dance with Me!

1959

Come Fly with Me poster
5.0

Three airline hostesses combine their work crossing the Atlantic with searching for a rich handsome man to marry.

Come Fly with Me

1963

The Vault of Horror poster
6.4

The sequel to Tales from the Crypt. Five strangers trapped in a basement vault converse about their recurring nightmares. Their stories include vampires, bodily dismemberment, east Indian mysticism, an insurance scam, and an artist who kills by painting his victims' deaths.

The Vault of Horror

1973

The Silent Enemy poster
5.9

The Mediterranean, 1941/42 - Axis forces are using frogmen and manned torpedoes to attack previously impregnable harbours. The Allied forces need to come up with something to answer this threat, which they find in the form of Lt. Lionel "Buster" Crabb.

The Silent Enemy

1958

Plymouth Adventure poster
5.9

During the Mayflower pilgrims' long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on their way to America, Captain Christopher Jones falls in love with William Bradford's wife Dorothy.

Plymouth Adventure

1952

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll poster
6.1

After a series of scientific experiments directed towards freeing the inner man and controlling human personalities, the kindly, generous Dr Henry Jekyll succeeds in freeing his own alter ego, Edward Hyde, a sadistic, evil creature whose pleasure is murder.

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll

1960

A King in New York poster
6.7

A recently-deposed "Estrovian" monarch seeks shelter in New York City, where he becomes an accidental television celebrity. Later, he's wrongly accused of being a Communist and gets caught up in subsequent HUAC hearings.

A King in New York

1957

Zeta One poster
4.1

A race of sexy, other-dimensional specimens arrive to Earth to kidnap women to repopulate their planet.

Zeta One

1969

The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse poster
6.8

A reporter is murdered while driving to his job. The Police are contacted by a clairvoyant who saw the death in a vision, but some dark force is preventing him from seeing the man behind the crime...

The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse

1960

Temptation poster
5.0

When a ship bringing a contingent of international wounded from Korea is torpedoed, three women (two nurses and a secretary) and a male journalist survive and reach a lonely island in a boat. Soon desire erupts among them, but jealousy, lust and madness lead the events to tragedy.

Temptation

1959

The Woman Who Came from the Sea poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Woman Who Came from the Sea

1954

The Moon Is Blue poster
6.3

Two aging playboys are both after the same attractive young woman, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men determine to find a way around her objections.

The Moon Is Blue

1953

Night Into Morning poster
6.0

Berkeley university professor adjusts (using alcohol) to tragic fire deaths of wife & son.

Night Into Morning

1951

No artwork available
5.5

In this mystery, a nouveau-riche Frenchman returns to his Parisian home after finding a fortune in Africa. He is looking for a wife and begins advertising in the newspaper. Instead he finds himself victimized by con-artists.

House of Sin

1961

Young Bess poster
5.8

The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch -- the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Jean Simmons portrays young Bess in this rich tapestry of a film that traces the tumultuous, danger-fraught years from Elizabeth's birth to her unexpected ascension to the throne at a mere 25. Charles Laughton reprises his Academy Award®-winning* role as her formidable father Henry VIII. Deborah Kerr plays her last stepmother (and Henry's last of six wives), gentle Catherine Parr. And Simmons' then real-life husband, Stewart Granger, adds heroics as Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour. In a resplendent world of adventure, romance and court intrigue, Young Bess reigns.

Young Bess

1953

The Secrets of the Bed poster
3.8

Four-episode Franco-Italian omnibus film. Four men from different national and cultural background take refuge in a cabin after being sidetracked by bad weather on their way to conference.

The Secrets of the Bed

1954

The Girl on The Roof poster
5.3

A comedy of manners, the film centers on virtuous actress Patty O'Neill, who meets playboy architect Donald Gresham on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and accepts his invitation to join him for drinks and dinner in his apartment. There she meets Donald's upstairs neighbors, his ex-fiancée Cynthia and her father, roguish David Slader. Both men are determined to bed the young woman, but they quickly discover Patty is more interested in engaging in spirited discussions about the pressing moral and sexual issues of the day than surrendering her virginity to either one of them. After resisting their amorous advances throughout the night, Patty leaves and returns to the Empire State Building, where Donald finds her and proposes marriage.

The Girl on The Roof

1953

The Hour of 13 poster
6.1

1890, London, and a serial killer known as The Terror is murdering policemen. When gentleman thief Nicholas Revel unwittingly becomes the chief suspect, he must use his guile and wits to prove he’s not the killer; whilst also not getting caught for a jewel robbery he has just committed.

The Hour of 13

1952

The Count of Bragelonne poster
6.0

Raoul de Bragelonne must uphold his musketeer father's legacy in the face of court intrigues from Cardinal Mazarin.

The Count of Bragelonne

1954

The Unknown Man poster
5.1

A scrupulously honest lawyer discovers that the client he's gotten off was really guilty.

The Unknown Man

1951