Betty Jane Bierce, better known by her stage name Jane Poni Adams was an American actress in radio, film, and television in the 1940s and 1950s. Adams was born in San Antonio, Texas, but her family moved to California when she was two. During her high school years, she studied violin and drama, and she was selected to be a concert mistress of the all-city high school orchestra of Los Angeles. She received a full scholarship to Juilliard, which she turned down to spend years studying at the Pasadena Playhouse.After the Playhouse, she got her start on Lux Radio Theatre, and then with the Harry Conover Modeling Agency, where she was given her nickname Poni. This was supposedly due to her love of horses, but in reality it was to provide her with a more memorable stage name.(In the book Westerns Women Interviews with 50 Leading Ladies of Movie and Television Westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s, Adams said I was given that name at the Harry Conover Modeling Agency. Why, I dont know! She returned to using her real name in 1945.Military personnel played a role in her change of names from Poni Adams to Jane Adams. A photograph printed in newspapers in 1946 carried the caption GI JANE — Jane Adams — formerly Poni Adams — holds some of 32,851 letters her press agent said came from GIs after she appealed for aid in choosing a new name.Adams first screen appearance was in So You Want to Give Up Smoking, a short film in 1942. She may be best known for her role as Nina in House of Dracula, but she also has the distinction of acting in early adaptations of both major DC Comics franchises Batman, where she played Vicki Vale in the second Batman serial, Batman and Robin, and also a character in the first Superman television series.On May 21, 2014, Adams died in Bellingham, Washington, at the age of 95. She was buried (as Betty J. Turnage) beside her husband in Arlington National Cemetery.
Nina
Film 1945
Nurse Scanion (uncredited)
Film 1949
Helen Paige
Film 1946
Vicki Vale
Film 1949
Susan Marlowe
Film 1946
Jane Darnton
Film 1949
Marjorie Elmore
Film 1946
Self (archive footage)
Film 2014
Marjorie 'Maggie' Bradley
Film 1946
Kathy Martin
Film 1950
Josephine Fremont
Film 1946
Salome Girl
Film 1945
Nancy Marlowe
Film 1949
Nora Malloy
Film 1950
Margie Kendal
Film 1950
Julie Randall (as Poni Adams)
Film 1945
Dorothy Jackson (as Poni Adams)
Film 1945
Laura Burton
Film 1946
Judy Gordon
Film 1949
Circus Club Photographer
Film 1945
Jane Phillips, Secretary
Film 1951
Self / Vicki Vale (archive footage)
Film 1989
Lotus
Film 1946
Babette DuLoque
Tv 1952