Don Adams has died (Get Smart)

Don Adams, who gained worldwide fame and three Emmy Awards starring as Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, in the classic television comedy GET SMART, died at 8:02 p.m PDT, Sunday, September 25, 2005, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills. He was 82. Although he had been in failing health for more than two years due to bone lymphoma, his death resulted from a sudden lung infection for which he was hospitalized the previous day.

Born Donald James Yarmy on April 13, 1923 [correct, despite frequently reported erroneous dates] in New York City to Irish-Hungarian parents, Adams hoped for an engineering career. He joined the U.S. Marines in the early days of World War II and served as a drill instructor. He saw combat in the invasion of Guadalcanal and was the only survivor of his platoon. He contracted blackwater fever and nearly died, remaining hospitalized for more than a year.

Following the war, he embarked on a career as an impressionist and stand-up comedian, appearing in small clubs in Florida and Washington D.C. He married singer Adelaide Adams and took her professional last name as his own stage name. In 1954, his stand-up act, written with his boyhood friend Bill Dana, landed him a contestant spot on ARTHUR GODFREY'S TALENT SCOUTS, which he won. This led to scores of appearances on comedy and variety series such as THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW and Ed Sullivan's THE TOAST OF THE TOWN, and ultimately to a regular job on THE PERRY COMO SHOW. He also played in stock and in 1962 starred with Anthony Perkins in the Broadway play HAROLD.

Divorced and remarried (to dancer Dorothy Bracken), Adams in 1963 reunited with Bill Dana on THE BILL DANA SHOW, playing inept hotel detective Byron Glick, a forerunner to his most famous characterization. NBC placed Adams under contract and gave him the starring role in Mel Brooks's and Buck Henry's spy spoof GET SMART. As the bumbling yet intrepid secret agent Maxwell Smart, Adams was an instant success. With his alluring straight-woman partner Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), Adams became a comic icon of the 1960s, popularizing dozens of catch-phrases that still resound today: "Would you believe?", "Missed it by THAT much!", "...and LOVING it!" and "Sorry about that, Chief."

Adams reveled in the show and its popularity, and particularly enjoyed writing and directing several episodes. GET SMART ran for five seasons and brought Adams wealth, awards, and worldwide fame. At the same time, he continued to achieve recognition as one of the funniest and most popular stand-up comedians of his generation.

Adams returned in a new series in 1971, THE PARTNERS, which, though slightly more serious than GET SMART, still had him playing a bumbling law-enforcement officer. This time he starred with Rupert Crosse, the two playing a pair of none-too-bright detectives. The show lasted one season. Except for the intriguing but unsuccessful DON ADAMS'S SCREEN TEST (a contest show in which Adams directed famous stars and amateurs in scenes from classic movies), he did not return to series television for fourteen years.

Instead he guest-starred on sitcoms, variety shows, and occasional TV movies. He played Las Vegas showrooms and nightclubs, though he grew increasingly reluctant to perform before live audiences. With the distinctive voice of his on-screen persona, he had long been active in voice-over work. Even during the GET SMART period he had been popular among children as the voice of the animated TENNESSE TUXEDO, and later was even more popular in his title role as INSPECTOR GADGET.

Divorced again, he married a third time in 1977 (to Judy Luciano). During this period, Adams starred in and directed a number of commercials, winning a CLIO Award for directing. In 1980, he reluctantly returned to the Maxwell Smart character in a feature film, THE NUDE BOMB, which he hated. He also brought the character briefly back to television in the 1989 TV movie GET SMART, AGAIN!

In 1985, he returned to series television in a Canadian sitcom, CHECK IT OUT, in which he played the manager of a supermarket. The show was popular enough to run for three seasons on American TV, but it mainly provided a paycheck for Adams and a co-starring role for a pre-NYPD BLUE Gordon Clapp.

In later years, he hoped for a chance at serious roles, of which he had done many in his early years in summer stock. But the opportunity never arrived. A role was actually written for him by his son-in-law for the revived ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS in 1986, but the producers feared he could not subsume his comedic persona, and the role went to Martin Landau.

Instead, he returned to the role that had made him world famous, in a third revival of Maxwell Smart. The 1995 series version of GET SMART featured Adams as Smart, now promoted to Chief of the secret agency CONTROL. Barbara Feldon also returned as his wife and colleague, but instead of the couple who had made television history, the show focused on the bumbling spy efforts of their son Zach Smart. Only seven episodes aired before the new show was cancelled.

Adams spent the remainder of his career doing commercials and voice work, mostly in new INSPECTOR GADGET productions. In 1999, he made a cameo voice appearance in the live-action INSPECTOR GADGET feature film starring Matthew Broderick as Gadget.

Like his brother, the late comedian Dick Yarmy, Adams was an inveterate horse-player. His leisure time was largely spent either at racetracks or in card games at the Playboy Mansion, and with pals such as Hugh Hefner, James Caan, and Don Rickles. Divorced for the third time, he lived alone in a luxury apartment in Century City. He was a devoted history buff, and was an amateur expert on the lives of Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler. He was a talented poet and painter and had at one time considered a career as an artist.

His health declined in recent years with the onset of lymphoma, but took a precipitous turn for the worse following the death last year of his daughter, actress-casting director Cecily Adams. In recent weeks he had declined to continue medications or treatment for his ailments. Following his emergency hospitalization on September 24, he was unable to breathe on his own. As per his instructions, life-support systems were turned off Sunday night. Two of his former wives and three of his children, as well as other family members, were with him when he died.

Adams is survived by six of his seven children: Daughters Carolyn Steele (of Pahoa, Hawaii), Christine Adams (of Elkridge, Maryland), Cathy Metchik (of Henderson, Nevada), [Paramount TV executive] Stacey Adams, and Beige Adams, and son Sean Adams (all of Los Angeles); by five of his seven grandchildren (another is expected in November); and by three great-grandchildren.

There will be a private memorial service. Burial will be with Marine Corps honors at an undetermined location.

Memorial donations may be made to the Motion Picture & Television Fund, MPTF Foundation, 22212 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 300, Woodland Hills CA 91364.

Maxwell Smart, Alias Agent 86. Has Slight, Sharp Features. Speaks In Clipped, Piercing Tones. May Be Dangerous.

TV Today - January 1969 - Peggy Hudson, TV Editor, Scholastic Magazines

He's dangerous, all right. He's TV's super-blooper secret agent.

KAOS agents have been after him for years. But he's slippery as a banana peel and hasn't been tripped up yet -- thanks mostly to co-spy, Agent 99.

Smart isn't exactly dumb. He's the original bumbler -- blandly arrogant, naturally incompetent. When the phone rings, he answers his shoe, and he's off on assignment -- if he can remember where he's going.

Despite his ineptness, he's probably the most widely quoted character on TV. His "Sorry about that ,Chief" is frequently more infuriating than no apology at all. And "Would you believe?" has become a transparent cover-up for outrageous lies, such as this one of Smart's:

Smart is played by 41-year-old Don Adams. Would you believe Donald James Yarmy? Actually, it's both.

One day a young comedian named Yarmy tried to audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts without an appointment.

"They asked my name and I said, 'Don Adams.' A week later I was on the show and won. From then on I worked as Don Adams," Yarmy-Adams-Smart recently recalled.

TV's most popular secret agent got into TV after appearing in a number of big movies -- big movie theatres, that is. As a schoolboy, he found movies more stimulating than classrooms. "I was the greatest truant in the history of the New York City schools," he said. "I spent practically my entire youth going to movies and dodging the truant officer. But they always knew where to find me. In a way, I was going to school there. I was interested and excited by the make-believe world. Seeing Ronald Coleman was more adventuresome than living on 86th Street in New York City in the 1930's."

To get in the Marines in World War II, Adams had to up his age, and his weight as well. Increasing his age from 16 was relatively easy (he lied). But it took a great deal of eating to gain 32 pounds to top the required mark of 150.

While serving on Guadalcanal he not only got shot but, even worse, sick. He contracted black water fever, a disease which is often fatal. Recovering consciousness long enough to discover a corpsman sitting deathwatch at his bedside, Adams said grimly: "I'm not going anywhere."

Back in civilian life Adams attended an art institution, became a commercial artist, wrote comedy material, and tried to establish a career as a nightclub comedian. It was during this phase that he decided to try to break into Godfrey's program.

When we visited Adams at his luxurious home in Beverly Hills' posh Truesdale Estates, we found him reading Winston Churchill -- and ready to go golfing.

"I never believed in formal education, but I've tried to educate myself," he said. "For a couple of years I devoured about every book I could get my hands on. I was really giving myself a 'mental stomach ache'. Finally I realized that it's not how much you read, but how well you reason things out for yourself that counts."

It was impossible to ignore in Adams a thing we've noted about many comedians when they're off stage: They seem to be extremely serious people. It's as though they get enough yaks just making audiences laugh while they're doing their job. During their leisure moments, they want to relax.

Get Smart is currently in its fourth season on NBC. "I'm not really getting tired of it," Adams said. "Again it's a kind of escape into things I wouldn't normally be doing. It's exciting to find different way to do comedy."

Adams analyzes Smart with a logic seldom found on his program. "Maxwell," Adams said, "is serious, dedicated, awkward, forgetful, pompous to a certain degree, sentimental."

Is that how Adams sees himself?

"Yes," he admitted.

He indicated he would like to be a director even more than an actor. "I directed several shows last year and the year before," he said. "Writers put down words, but it's the director who takes those words and the actors and puts them together. Actors in most cases are just puppets."

Near the end of our interview, a golfing friend of Adams' dropped by to take him for a round -- a ritual which, Adams admitted, he'd go through more often if her weren't so busy with the series. This fall Smart will marry the series' Agent 99, played by Barbara Feldon -- an event which just might lead to 99's becoming a "golfing widow."

Sorry about that, Chief.

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