Don Adams, TV's Maxwell Smart, Dies at 82

Don Adams, the star of the 60's TV spy spoof Get Smart and the cartoon voices of the leading characters on Tennessee Tuxedo and Inspector Gadget, died of a lung infection late Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, says his former agent.

Adams was 82 and had been in ill health for a year, since breaking a hip, the Associated Press reports.

At the height of the 007 James Bond craze in 1965, Adams played Agent 86 Maxwell Smart in the Saturday-night NBC comedy, which was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Smart – whose beautiful sidekick played by Barbara Felden was named, simply, Agent 99 – worked for the federal information agency Control, whose enemy was Kaos.

Hopelessly inept and quick to judge, Smart rarely solved anything, leaving him to recant repeatedly to his chief (actor Edward Platt), "Would you believe ... ?" The line became a national catchphrase.

Despite being dropped by NBC after two seasons (CBS picked it up for another three, and there were later revivals, including some on the big screen), Get Smart twice won the Emmy for best comedy series. Adams won three times as comedy actor in a series.

"It was a special show that became a cult classic of sorts, and I made a lot of money for it," Adams said a decade ago, reports AP. "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."

Born of Hungarian Jewish extraction in New York City as Donald James Yarmy, Adams picked up the staccato delivery he would later use professionally when he worked as a drill instructor in the Marines. (He had gotten sick overseas while serving in Guadalcanal and had returned stateside.) Besides spitting out words, Adams also turned up the tenor a notch and sounded nasal.

Adams began doing standup in New York nightclubs after the war, trying out material at night while working as a commercial artist by day. In all, Adams had three wives, and three divorces. His last marriage, to Judy Luciano, ended in 1977, after seven years. He had seven children, according to AP.



RIP TENNESSEE :(

I had a proffessor in college that sounded just like Don Adams. Sometimes he would take off his shoe and go,"Hello Chief?" It was always funny as hell.

BRILLIANT SHOW---BRILLIANT COMEDIAN

I always used to watch this with my Dad in the 60s. One of my fond memories of being a kid.

The CIA used to send people around occasionally to ask them how they knew about some of the gadgets that were on Get Smart.

Seems the CIA already had a lot of stuff (they actually had something similar to the "Cone Of Silence") that was portrayed on the show, and of course the technology was classified, so when stuff would show up on the show they would be a bit...ummm..perplexed.

R.I.P. Agent Smart

At least he had a good long life with much success. That is all anyone can hope for.

Funny man.....funny show.

Always loved the opening credits where he walked through all those doors down the hallway, and smashed his nose on the last one. :D

R.I.P. Maxwell Smart.

FUCK KAOS!!!!!!

For shits and giggles...some "Get Smart" Trivia:

Don Adams was a United States Marine during World War II. He got Malaria during the fighting in Guadalcanal. His TV career started when he won the competition on the TV show, "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour".

The "Cone of Silence" was a device that was suppossed to guarantee privacy so that agents could tell each other secrets with no chance of being overheard. Of course, it never worked! It appeared in only nine episodes.

Barbara Feldon appeared as a contestant on the "$64,000 Question" quiz show and actually won the entire $64,000! That was a huge sum of money in those days! Her question category was "Shakespeare".

Bernie Kopell came to the show in the 2nd season as Maxwell Smart's evil rival "Siegfried". You might know Bernie better as "Doctor Bricker" on the show "Love Boat".

Robert Karavelas played the role of "Larabee" on the show. In real life, he was Don Adams' cousin.

Contrary to popular belief, Agent 99's real name is never revealed. In episode #79, "99 Loses CONTROL", she states that her name is Susan Hilton, but at the end of the episode, she tells Maxwell Smart, "Susan isn't my real name."

"KAOS" and "CONTROL" are not acronyms. They don't mean anything. Think of it like this: There would be "chaos" in an evil world. A good world is where evil is "controlled."

The Chief's first name on the TV show was "Thaddeus". His cover name was "Harold Clark". He had no agent number like "86" or "99" because he became an agent before they assigned numbers.

NBC decided to cancel the show at the end of the fourth season. CBS picked up the show and got a ratings increase (for a short amount of time) by announcing that Agent 99 was going to have a baby (which ended up being twins).

Don Adams used to tell a story that before he got the Get Smart gig, he would do some stand up at this comedy club. The owner hated his act and would always tell him he wasn't funny and would never make it in the business.

Adams gets the Get Smart gig and becomes famous years later. He decided to wander back into the club and the owner is still sitting where he always would be. He figures that this guy will kiss his ass because he's now a famous tv star.

Adams says, "remember me? YoOu said I'd never make it in comedy?"

The owner says, "Oh yeah..I remember you"

Adams asks his 'What do you think of me now?"

The owner says, "Okay, I'll give you a shot tomorrow night if you have nothing better to do."