Los Angeles – 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 combating 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, played by 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 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,” Feldon said. “Don in person was anything but bumbling.”
“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. Adams never had another showcase to display his comic talent.
He was born Donald James Yarmy in New York City on April 13, 1923, Tufeld said, although some sources say 1926 or 1927. In 1941, he dropped out of school to join the Marines. In Guadalcanal, he survived the deadly blackwater fever and was returned to the United 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 and a standup comic by night, taking the surname of his first wife, Adelaide Adams. His comedy-club following grew, and soon he was appearing on Ed Sullivan’s show and late- night TV shows.
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.
