Hollywood legend Adam West got his start in Hawaii at KGMB

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hollywood legend Adam West, who died Friday at age 88 after a battle with Leukemia, got his start in show business in the 1950s on KGMB as a television and radio personality.

Back then his name was Bill Anderson and he lived in Honolulu.

News clippings said his first appearance on local TV screens was an adventure show called the "Mysterious Stranger." The TV actor also worked in advertising in the islands.

When he left for Hollywood and signed a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers, he embraced his new name of Adam West.

Later, he tried to set up a movie studio in Hawaii, saying "Hawaii is the idea setting for movie making. It has the climate Hollywood used to have before smog set in, and every type of terrain is available."

West married the younger sister of Polynesian author Johnny Frisbie, who was married to his radio co-host, Kini Popo.

In 1959, West moved with his wife, Nga, and their two children to Hollywood.

"He had enough of Hawaii and he didn't think he was getting what he had in mind, his dream, and he just decided to go to Hollywood and give it a try, and wham, bam, there he was," said Frisbie. "He loved his family, he loved his children, he loved my sister. But the life in Hollywood, when he was starting out, was really difficult for a newly married couple."

The couple split after five years.

In 2012, West got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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