Biography of adam faith

Byline: BRIAN LIRONI

ADAM FAITH was the 50s rock star who survived fickle teenage tastes by reinventing himself as a TV star.

He died yesterday, aged 62, following a heart attack in a hotel room in Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, after performing at the town's Regent Theatre. He died in hospital around 2am.

Adam had a history of heart trouble and underwent open heart surgery in 1986.

Just recently he had become reconciled with his wife Jackie, who he married 35 years ago.

They had split after he admitted affairs with tennis star Chris Evert and actress Louise Lombard, who starred in BBC costume drama House of Eliott.

But the couple had found happiness again and it was daughter Katya, 32, who broke yesterday's sad news to her mum.

After switching from rock `n' roll to cult TV roles such as Budgie, he later began a career as a business entrepreneur and successful financial journalist.

Last year Adam was declared bankrupt after he reportedly lost pounds 32million in failed TV venture The Money Channel.

But it is as a pop star that he will be best remembered by his legions of fans. In the late 50s and early 60s, he was one of Britain's top three singers, alongside Cliff Richard and Billy Fury.

His 11 top 20 hits included What Do You Want, which was No.1 for four weeks and Poor Me, another chart- topper.

Despite his pop idol status he quit singing in 1967 - the year he married long- standing girlfriend Jackie - to concentrate on acting and starred in the hugely popular 1970s TV series Budgie, alongside Scots actor Iain Cuthbertson. Yesterday friends of the star, real name Terry Nelhams, paid tribute to his five decades in showbusiness.

Adam's agent Alan Field said: "Tel was one of the best communicators I ever knew.

"It could be a taxi driver or a member of royalty - he was able to communicate with everybody at every level and he was respected and loved by them all.

"He came through in the pioneering days of pop music and he really was a big icon along with Cliff Richard, they were the first wave of the British version of the pop music world."

At 15, Adam began his career as a messenger at Rank Screen Services.

One year later he and some friends formed a skiffle group called The Worried Men and they were soon spotted by TV producer Jack Good playing in Soho.

By 1959, the young Londoner was one of the biggest stars in pop.

TV stardom arrived in the 1970s as Adam played the chirpy cockney just out of prison in Budgie, the TV classic, written by Keith Waterhouse. After a car crash in 1973, when he almost lost a leg, Adam went into semi- retirement.

He made his comeback two years later as a rock star manager in the film Stardust, with David Essex. He also discovered the singer Leo Sayer and produced many of his hits.

In the early 1980s, Adam - who had amassed a small fortune over the years through property dealings - moved away from showbiz and became a financial investments adviser.

He once said: "Next to breathing, eating and drinking, the most important thing is money. And since you need money to eat and drink, you could say it's the most important thing after breathing." In 1986 he underwent open-heart surgery after being found to have seriously blocked arteries.

He made a full recovery and then took up financial journalism.

In the 1990s, however, he began a return to TV and starred alongside Zoe Wanamaker in the hit TV series Love Hurts and with former EastEnder Gillian Taylforth in the BBC sit- com The House That Jack Built.

Adam had been due to appear in a new season of the BBC's Murder in Mind, alongside Jamie Theakston and Helen Baxendale.