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Don Adams of 'Get Smart' Dies at 82

Actor Don Adams of 'Get Smart' Fame Dies of Lung Infection at Age 82

By BOB THOMAS
The Associated Press

Sep. 27, 2005 - 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-cellphone 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.

"He had this prodigious energy, so as an actor working with him it was like being plugged into an electric current," Feldon said from New York. "He would start and a scene would just take off and you were there for the ride. It was great fun acting with him."

Adams was very intelligent, she said, a quality that suited the satiric show that had comedy geniuses Mel Brooks and Buck Henry behind it.

"He wrote poetry, he had an interest in history ... He had that other side to him that does not come through Maxwell Smart," she said. "Don in person was anything but bumbling."

Adams had an "amazing memory" that allowed him to take an unusual approach to filming, Feldon said.

Instead of learning his lines ahead of time he would have a script assistant read his part to him just once or twice. He invariably got it right but that didn't stop people from placing bets on it, she recounted.

Adams, who had been under contract to NBC, was lukewarm about doing a spy spoof. When he learned that Brooks and 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.

After four seasons on NBC, CBS picked up the show but the ratings fell off as the jokes became repetitive and it was canceled in 1970 after just one year. 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 the voice of Tennessee Tuxedo. In 1980, he appeared as Maxwell Smart in a feature film, "The Nude Bomb," about a madman whose bomb destroyed people's clothing.

Adams' survivors include six of his children; a sister; and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Tufeld said funeral arrangements were incomplete.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

FWIW... Maxwell Smart is not Inspector Gadget.

EDIT~
ooops... I had no idea that he did IG's voice... weird.

well...not exactly...but, pretty much.


Inspector Gadget was a cartoon parody of the 1960's television spy parody, Get Smart. Don Adams played the leads in both shows. There are similarities between the two shows. Both agents only had lots of gadgets or devices that they never could use correctly. Both worked for a chief that they invariably infuriated. And of course, both Gadget and Smart were lovable idiots who always won in the end, usually by accident or by someone else's help.

In any case, I always wanted a shoe phone.

Well RIP to him.....anyone under , say, 40? won't remember Get Smart and the antics and spy spoofin' TV series.

Rob

Get a lot of those shows in Australia, "Rob?"

You gotta be kiddin! I was a total Get Smart addict in the '80's. Agent 99 was like my alternate Wonder Woman:) Nick @ Nite, man....Nick @ Nite

Aaahhh man did we!!! If you closed all of your windows at home in Wollongong, unhooked the phone and turned channel 7 or 9 on, you'd think you were in the States. In my heyday, I used to watch TV series like Francis the Talking Horse (remember that one, hehehheh!!), My uncle is a Martian (or something like that?! ), Bob Hope (the BEST commedian after Charlie Chaplin.....I'm on his site forum too!!!!!!!), The Lucy Show (Lucille Ball [RIP] IS the BEST woman commedian in the whole wide world), Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, Mod Squad (I fell in LOVE with Julie Barnes.....MY type of chick!!!!!!), Abbott and Costello, All in the Family....Archie Bunker was TOPS!!!), etc. etc.
I personally was more into the US stuff than the Aussie stuff including mags like Famous Monsters (great mag..the best!!!!), The Archies comix, Hot Rod, Model Car Racing mags, etc.
I'd better stop my rant here!!

Rob

Yeah right, they're showing Get Smart in the EU (where I am at the moment) now too!!! Concerning Agent 99, she looked and acted dumb, but she was MIGHTY SEXY underneath it all!!!!!

Rob

dude, francis was a talking mule (and that was even before my time), mr. ed was the horse, of course. and no one can talk to a horse of course, unless that horse is the famous mr. ed...

I loved the man in both Inspector Gadget, and Get Smart. He was brilliant I tell you, brilliant!
<sigh>

Hahahhahahah!!! Yeah, after all this time I still get mighty mixed up with those crazy talkin' animals.....your bloody right, Mr.Ed was the name of the white talkative horsie, right? I still haven't got over those kinds of coms and today my fave talking animal is Tequila

But Mister Ed was a zebra.


FTR, I LOVED Get Smart reruns as a kid. I was cranky for months over its disappearance from the YTV schedule. The movie was funny and all, but it wasn't the same (the Chief's absence being the most obvious reason). I look forward to the series DVD set.

Bye-bye, Don.

Well, I'll be slapped sideways twice.....it seems to be true!!!!
BIVESTER: never trust first sights, heheheh!!!

Rob

...............or it might NOT be true after all, right ?! heheheh!!!

Rob