Adams began appearing as a film extra in 1934, and had roles in films including "Midshipman Easy" (1935), "Song of Freedom" in 1936 – together with Paul Robeson – and "King Solomon's Mines" (1937). He also featured in "Old Bones of the River" (1938), worked as Robeson's stunt double in 1940's "The Proud Valley", was in a 1941 Colonial Film Unit production entitled "An African in London", and played the role of a Nubian slave in "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1945). The following year, when Adams starred in "Men of Two Worlds", it was hailed by critics as a "ground-breaking film".