Jill Adams

British film actress of generally frivolous "blond" roles , daughter of silent film actress Molly Adair. Her father, a New Zealand-born Irish-American author and animal handler, Arthur James Siggins, had met her mother while both were working on a film. Adams was born Jillian M.M. Siggins on July 22, 1930, in London. She spent her early years first in New Zealand and then in Wales, working as a teenager on farms. She subsequently took work as a sales clerk, window dresser, and secretary before taking a job as an assistant artist at a department store. When a model failed to show up for a fashion show, Adams was recruited to step in, which led to a successful modeling career. This resulted in turn in small parts in stage shows, including an Anthony Newley revue, "On With the New." From this she began to receive offers of bit roles in movies. She was given a small role of a bridesmaid in The Black Knight (1954) and her stylish beauty caught the eye of producers, who began to give her larger and larger roles. Within a year, she was appearing in light comedies and occasional dramas, and eventually starring in several TV series. She continued to do work in radio and on stage. Her sexy blond appearance and skill at comedy led her to be called on occasion "the British Marilyn Monroe." She had married an American navy sailor, Jim Adams, in 1951, and taken his last name as her stage name. The marriage was short-lived, but produced a daughter, Tina. In 1957, she remarried, this time to TV personality Peter Haigh, with whom she had a second daughter, Peta Louise. Her career continued, but as the 1960s arrived, the quality of material she was offered began to diminish and roles began to dry up. By 1965, she had decided to give up acting following a small role in the Warren Beatty comedy Promise Her Anything. In 1971, she and her husband moved the family to the Algarve in Portugal, where they ran a hotel and restaurant in Albufeira. She continued this work even after her divorce from Haigh. Her business partner, Alan 'Buster' Jones became her life partner as well, and upon her retirement, they moved first to the Lisbon area, and then to various locales in Spain. Following Jones's death in 1966, she returned to Portugal to be near her family. She resumed her early work as an artist and gained some small renown for it. She was afflicted with cancer in 2005 and died in Portugal from the disease on May 13, 2008, at 77.