Catlin Adams, the actress and director who shared the screen with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1970s and 1980s, was seen out running errands in Los Angeles this week.
During the height of her career, Adams appeared in one of Steve Martin’s most cherished films, playing a key part in an onscreen romantic triangle that also involved Bernadette Peters.
Her film credits also include a role alongside Neil Diamond and Laurence Olivier in the 1980 remake of the first feature-length talking picture, while later in her career she appeared in an installment of Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld franchise.
Adams also built a wide-ranging career behind the camera, directing projects including an Emmy-winning television special starring a then-13-year-old Ben Affleck.
Now 75, she is primarily known for her work as an acting coach, with her website listing Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Amy Adams, Zoe Saldana, Naomi Watts and Jane Fonda among the stars she has coached.
Can you guess who she is?
An actress who co-starred with some of the top-flight names of the 1970s and 1980s was spotted running errands in Los Angeles this week
Now 75, she works largely as an acting teacher whose website says she has coached Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Amy Adams, Zoe Saldana, Naomi Watts and Jane Fonda
At the peak of her stardom, she featured in an onscreen love triangle with Bernadette Peters over Steve Martin in one of his most beloved hit movies
She is none other than Catlin Adams, best known for her turn as the tough-as-nails motorcyclist Patty Bernstein in the 1979 film The Jerk, directed by Carl Reiner.
Although she briefly enraptures Steve Martin’s title character and takes his virginity, he quickly finds himself lured away by the charms of the movie’s leading lady, played by Martin’s real-life girlfriend Bernadette Peters.
Adams landed the part by throwing herself into her audition so enthusiastically that, in a moment of improvisation, she tore Martin’s shirt open and bit one of his nipples.
Although Martin had already become a household name on Saturday Night Live, Adams, who did not own a TV set, was unaware of who he was.
Born Nira Barab in Los Angeles in 1950, she caught the acting bug at the age of four and by 14 had become the youngest student at Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio.
She landed her observer status because of a chance encounter at home with her parents’ acquaintance Anna Mizrahi, who was then dating and eventually became Strasberg’s third and final wife, Adams said on The Wordslinger Podcast.
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Early in her life in showbiz, Adams also studied under such legendary acting coaches as Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner, both of whose methods she incorporated into her own classes once she entered their profession.
Under her original name, she began her acting career in the late 1960s and jobbed around on TV shows like The Rat Patrol, Adam-12 and McMillan & Wife.
She is none other than Catlin Adams, best-known for her turn as the tough-as-nails motorcyclist Patty Bernstein in the 1979 film The Jerk, directed by Carl Reiner
Although she briefly enraptures Steve Martin’s title character and takes his virginity, he shortly thereafter finds himself lured away by the charms of Bernadette Peters’ character
In 1980 she played opposite Neil Diamond in a remake of The Jazz Singer, the 1927 Al Jolson musical that was the first ‘talkie’ in the history of cinema
In 1974, she became a founding member of The Groundlings when the Los Angeles improv troupe was launched by Gary Austin, the year before Lorne Michaels recruited one of its stars Laraine Newman for the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live.
By the mid-1970s, Adams was acting in TV movies like Katherine, a thinly-veiled story about the Weather Underground starring Sissy Spacek and Henry Winkler, and Panic in Echo Park, an epidemic drama led by Adams and Dorian Harewood.
The Jerk propelled her to new heights of notoriety, and in 1980 she could be seen in a supporting role in a remake of The Jazz Singer, the 1927 Al Jolson musical that was the first ‘talkie’ in the history of cinema.
Adams’ version was fronted by Neil Diamond and featured Laurence Olivier, as well as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s ‘nepo baby’ Lucie Arnaz.
In 1986, Adams directed an Emmy-winning ABC Afterschool Special called Wanted: The Perfect Guy, starring Ben Affleck as a 13-year-old boy in desperate search of a date for his lonely mother, played by comedy legend Madeline Kahn, who featured in a string of Mel Brooks hits including Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
In 1986, Adams directed an Emmy-winning ABC Afterschool Special called Wanted: The Perfect Guy, starring 13-year-old Ben Affleck and comedy icon Madeline Kahn
Adams’ run as a director progressed with the 1988 crime caper Sticky Fingers, fronted by Helen Slater and Melanie Mayron, plus an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210.
In recent decades she has established herself as a top-flight Hollywood acting coach, whose website contains a formidable client list speckled with names like Michael Douglas, Lily Tomlin, Charlie Hunnam, Rachel Weisz, Jamie Bell and Megan Fox.
‘I love all actors, I do. I hardly have met an actor I don’t love,’ she gushed, before confessing: ‘I don’t love rap singers who become actors. Those are my hard ones. Those are hard for me, so I charge them a fortune.’
Adams’ career onscreen has continued with such projects as the 2012 film Underworld: Awakening, starring her student Kate Beckinsale in the role that catapulted her to instant icon status, the gunslinging vampire Selene.