Adam Roarke

A Brooklyn street-gang member in his youth, actor Adam Roarke spent the bulk of his film career wearing a black leather jacket, sporting a menacing-looking beard, and roaring into view astride a motorcycle. During the biker-flick vogue of the 1960s and early 1970s, Roarke either starred or co-starred in such chrome-plated epics as Hell's Angels on Wheels, Hell's Belles and The Losers. In one of his rare non-cycle appearances, he played Raymond Bailey, the conceited movie star who is doubled by Steve Railsback in The Stunt Man (1980). In 1987, Adam Roarke made his directorial debut with Trespasses. Roarke was born into a show business family; his father was a vaudeville comedian and his mother a chorine. He himself did not take up acting until after he decided to clean up his act and serve two years in the Army. He briefly studied acting and at age 19 signed a contract with Universal Studios where he appeared in the aforementioned biker flicks and as a television guest star on shows ranging from Star Trek to Mod Squad. In the early '80s, a Dallas-located Halloween party populated by young actors such as Lou Diamond Phillips, inspired Roarke to open an acting school in the Texas city. His Film Actors Lab opened at the Dallas Communications Complex in Las Colinas, Texas in 1982.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide