Don Adams of 'Get Smart' dies at 82

[Marc]

Adams played Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency Control on Get Smart.​

In 2002​

'Would you believe?' actor was 82

Monday, September 26, 2005; Posted: 3:46 p.m. EDT (19:46 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s TV spoof of James Bond movies, "Get Smart," has died. He was 82.

Adams died of a lung infection late Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said Monday, adding that the actor broke his hip a year ago and had been in ill health since.

As the inept Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency CONTROL, Adams captured TV viewers with his antics in combatting the evil agents of KAOS. When his explanations failed to convince the villains or his boss, he tried another tack:

"Would you believe ... ?"

It became a national catchphrase.

Smart was also prone to spilling things on the desk or person of his boss -- the Chief (actor Edward Platt). Smart's apologetic "Sorry about that, chief" also entered the American lexicon.

The spy gadgets, which aped those of the Bond movies, were a popular feature, especially the pre-cell-phone telephone in a shoe.

Smart's beautiful partner, Agent 99, played by Barbara Feldon, was as brainy as he was dense, and a plot romance led to marriage and the birth of twins later in the series.

Adams, who had been under contract to NBC, was lukewarm about doing a spy spoof. When he learned that Mel Brooks and Buck Henry had written the pilot script, he accepted immediately.

"Get Smart" debuted on NBC in September 1965 and scored No. 12 among the season's most-watched series and No. 22 in its second season.

"Get Smart" twice won the Emmy for best comedy series with three Emmys for Adams as comedy actor.

CBS picked up the show but the ratings fell off as the jokes seemed repetitive, and it was canceled after four seasons. The show lived on in syndication and a cartoon series. In 1995 the Fox network revived the series with Smart as chief and 99 as a congresswoman. It lasted seven episodes.

Adams never had another showcase to display his comic talent.

"It was a special show that became a cult classic of sorts, and I made a lot of money for it," he remarked of "Get Smart" in a 1995 interview. "But it also hindered me career-wise because I was typed. The character was so strong, particularly because of that distinctive voice, that nobody could picture me in any other type of role."

He was born Donald James Yarmy in New York City on April 13, 1923, Tufeld said, although some sources say 1926 or '27. The actor's father was a Hungarian Jew who ran a few small restaurants in the Bronx.

In a 1959 interview Adams said he never cared about being funny as a kid: "Sometimes I wonder how I got into comedy at all. I did movie star impressions as a kid in high school. Somehow they just got out of hand."

In 1941, he dropped out of school to join the Marines. In Guadalcanal he survived the deadly blackwater fever and was returned to the States to become a drill instructor, acquiring the clipped delivery that served him well as a comedian.

After the war he worked in New York as a commercial artist by day, doing standup comedy in clubs at night, taking the surname of his first wife, Adelaide Adams. His following grew, and soon he was appearing on the Ed Sullivan and late-night TV shows. Bill Dana, who had helped him develop comedy routines, cast him as his sidekick on Dana's show. That led to the NBC contract and "Get Smart."

Adams, who married and divorced three times and had seven children, served as the voice for the popular cartoon series, "Inspector Gadget," as well as cartoon character Tennessee Tuxedo. In 1980, he appeared as Maxwell Smart in a feature movie, "The Nude Bomb," about a madman whose bomb destroyed people's clothing.

Tufeld said funeral arrangements were incomplete.

 

[Jim Wynne]

Let's not forget that Adams was also the voice of Tennessee Tuxedo

 

[Marc]

Didn't he do some other voices as well?

 

[asutherland]

Actor - filmography
(1990s) (1980s) (1970s) (1960s)

Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Greatest Gadgets (1999) (V) .... Inspector Gadget (segments "The Capeman Cometh", "Prince of the Gypsies", and "Gadget's Gadgets")
Inspector Gadget (1999) (voice) .... Brain
"Gadget Boy's Adventures In History" (1998) TV Series (voice) .... Gadget Boy
"Pepper Ann" (1997) TV Series (voice) .... Principal Hickey
... aka Disney's Pepper Ann
"Inspector Gadget's Field Trips" (1996) TV Series (voice) .... Inspector Gadget
"Gadget Boy and Heather" (1995) TV Series (voice) .... Gadget Boy
... aka Gadget Boy (USA: syndication title)
"Get Smart" (1995) TV Series .... Maxwell Smart


Get Smart, Again! (1989) (TV) .... Maxwell Smart
Back to the Beach (1987) .... Harbor Master
... aka Malibu Beach Girls (USA)
The Amazing Adventures of Inspector Gadget (1986) (V) .... Inspector Gadget
"Check It Out" (1985) TV Series .... Howard Bannister
"Inspector Gadget" (1983) TV Series (voice) .... Inspector Gadget
... aka Inspecteur Gadget (France)
Jimmy the Kid (1982) .... Harry Walker
Murder Can Hurt You (1980) (TV) (voice) .... Narrator
The Nude Bomb (1980) .... Maxwell Smart
... aka Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb
... aka The Return of Maxwell Smart


The Love Boat (1976) (TV) .... Donald Richardson
Saga of Sonora (1973) (TV)
"The Partners" (1971) TV Series .... Det. Lennie Crooke


"The Hollywood Palace" (1964) TV Series .... Guest Host (1969)
"Get Smart" (1965) TV Series .... Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 (1965-1970)
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) (TV) (voice) (uncredited) .... Comet the Coach
"Underdog" (1964) TV Series (voice) .... Tennessee Tuxedo
"Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales" (1963) TV Series (voice) .... Tennessee Tuxedo
"The Bill Dana Show" (1963) TV Series .... Byron Glick


Sad when great comic's pass.. Red Skelton was one of my favorites as well as the "Dean Martin roasts" ... top notch

 

[RosieA]

Over the years I've wished repeatedly that someone would invent a real "Cone of Silence". Very Zen.