Born in San Francisco, California to Leon D. Adams and Laurence G. Girard, he was also billed as Ernest S. Adams and Ernie S. Adams.

He appeared in vaudeville, theater, and film. He started his career in musical comedy on Broadway. Along with his wife Berdonna Gilbert, he formed the vaudeville team "Gilbert and Adams". He appeared in more than 400 films starting from the silent era between 1919 and 1948, and was particularly known for playing shady characters. On Broadway, Adams appeared in Toot-Toot! (1918).

On November 26, 1947, Adams died of an acute pulmonary edema at the West Olympic Sanitarium in Los Angeles, California, aged 62. He is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Ernie Adams (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.