Born in Iowa, Betty May Adams grew up in Arkansas and made her acting debut in a third grade play, "Hansel and Gretel". When she grew up and decided to become an actress, she moved to California, where she worked three days a week as a secretary (to support herself) and spent the remainder of her time taking speech lessons and making the rounds at the various studios' casting departments. Her first movie role was playing a starlet, appropriately enough, in Paramount's L'ange endiablé (1949), followed by a leading role in the Lippert Western The Dalton Gang (1949). Over a period of five weeks, she appeared in six more quickie Lippert Westerns. Adams' first big show biz break was at Universal, when she appeared in a screen test opposite All-American footballer Leon Hart, a Detroit Lions end. It was Hart who was being considered by the studio, but the gridiron star flopped while Universal execs flipped over Adams. The studio changed her first name from Betty to Julia (and later to Julie).
