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).

"[5] Another early role was as Jean-Jacques Dessalines in the 1936 play Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History by C. L. R. James, again alongside Robeson and also other notable actors including Orlando Martins and Harry Andrews.

[8] After Robeson returned to the United States at the outbreak of the Second World War, Adams became Britain's leading black actor, and would continue acting on television in the 1940s and 1950s.

[1] In the late 1940s, Adams founded the Negro Repertory Arts Theatre, whose productions included O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings, at Colchester in 1944.

[3] Adams subsequently studied law and took a break from acting,[3] returning to London's West End stage in 1958 in Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, and appearing on television in Green Pastures (1958) and Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl in a 1960 ITV production.