Biography

His roles have included Prince Chulalongkorn in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, Wang San in Flower Drum Song, college student T.J. Padmanagham in High Time, and Ho-Jon in the television series M*A*S*H. After that, he retired from screen work and focused on dance instruction.

In 1958, Adiarte was cast as Wang San in Broadway's "Flower Drum Song" by director Gene Kelly. Adiarte made an electrifying appearance on the TV show "Omnibus" in a sequence entitled "Dancing, a Man's Game" alongside Kelly, who said, "If there's gonna be another Fred Astaire, I think it might well be Pat." The two then danced together, demonstrating how tap moves had originated vs. how they had progressed and modernized, with Kelly representing the old and Adiarte the new.

He emigrated to the U.S. and began his career playing Prince Chulalongkorn in the iconic "The King and I" (1956) among a cast that included Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr, and Rita Moreno. He repeated his performance in that year's Broadway revival of the 1951 show.

Adiarte's whipcord precision and verve made him a highly sought-after dancer in the '50s and '60s, and secured his presence in an array of pop culturally significant TV shows, films, and Broadway musicals.

He was a regular dancer on Hullabaloo ( an American musical variety series that ran on NBC from January 12, 1965, through April 11, 1966).