Don Adams, star of the 1960s TV spy spoof Get Smart, died of a lung infection
Sept. 25. He was 82.
Adams, who provided the cartoon voices of the leading characters on Tennessee
Tuxedo and Inspector Gadget, had been in ill health for a year, since breaking
a hip.
At the height of the James Bond craze in 1965, Adams played Agent 86 Maxwell
Smart in the comedy Get Smart, which was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.
The show led to him winning three Emmy Awards as comedy actor in a series.
Born of Hungarian Jewish extraction in New York City as Donald James Yarmy,
he worked as a drill instructor in the Marines. He became sick overseas while
serving in Guadalcanal and had returned to the US.
Adams began doing standup in New York nightclubs after World War II, 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.
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