Edie Adams was born Edith Elizabeth Enke on 16 April 1927 in Kingston, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Sheldon Alonzo Enke and Ada Dorothy Adams, whom she later described as "two conservative native Pennsylvanians." She took her stage surname from her mother's maiden name, Adams, and in her 1990 autobiography 'Sing a Pretty Song...' she wrote of a family tradition of Welsh-American heritage. That specific claim has not been independently confirmed through genealogical sources, so it is presented here as her own family's account rather than a documented fact.
A trained singer, Adams studied at the Juilliard School before winning the title of "Miss U.S. Television" in 1950, which led to an appearance on Milton Berle's show and, soon after, a role on Ernie Kovacs' pioneering television programme 'Three to Get Ready'. She and Kovacs married in 1954, and their on-screen partnership — she often played straight woman and glamorous foil to his surreal comedy — made them one of early television's best-known couples. She also had a celebrated Broadway career, winning a Theatre World Award for 'Wonderful Town' (1953) opposite Rosalind Russell, and the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for 'Li'l Abner' (1956).
On film she is best remembered as the embittered Miss Olsen in Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning 'The Apartment' (1960), and on television she became one of the most recognisable faces in America as the long-running spokeswoman for Muriel Cigars, a role she held for twenty years. After Kovacs was killed in a car accident in 1962, Adams was left deeply in debt from his estate; she rebuilt her finances through television work and by founding two businesses, Edie Adams Cosmetics and the Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl salon chain.
In her later years Adams became a dedicated archivist of her late husband's groundbreaking television work, buying back and preserving footage that networks had been ready to discard. The collection was donated by her son, Joshua Mills, to the Library of Congress in 2015. Edie Adams died in Los Angeles on 15 October 2008, aged 81.