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Don Adams
Age: 82 (passed away Sep. 25th, 2005)
Height: 5' 8 1/2"
Birth Place: New York City, New York, USA
Born: Apr. 13th, 1923
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Don Adams' Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: Of Irish-Hungarian heritage, New York-born Don Adams had a sister, Gloria, and a brother, Dick Yarmy. He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and contracted malaria during the fighting on Guadalcanal island. After the war he began a career as a stand-up comic. He married singer Adelaide Adams and adopted her last name as his stage surname. They had seven children: Carolyn, Christine, Catherine, Cecily Adams, Stacey Adams (I), Sean, Beige. His television career began when he won the "Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour" (1948) talent contest. His most famous role, of course, is as bumbling, incompetent, clueless yet endearing secret agent Maxwell Smart in the classic sitcom/spy spoof "Get Smart" (1965), although he also had a career as a television director and a Broadway and theatrical dramatic actor.
TRIVIA:
- Uninterested in doing the James Bond spoof _"Get Smart" (1965)_ (qv) series at first, he got on board after learning that 'Mel Brooks' (qv) and 'Buck Henry' (qv) were involved with the pilot script. 'Tom Poston' (qv) was the first name being considered for the role, but Adams, under contract to NBC at the time, was promoted for the job by the network.
- Cousin of 'Robert Karvelas' (qv)
- His Agent 86 catchphrase, "Would you believe...?", became the slogan for commercials for the White Castle hamburger chain in 1992, in which he also acted.
- Father-in-law of 'Jim Beaver (I)' (qv).
- His clipped Maxwell Smart voice came from a much exaggerated takeoff on 'William Powell (I)' (qv)'s "The Thin Man." He used to get laughs using the exact same voice years earlier on the stand-up circuit in different character set pieces - a baseball umpire, a football coach, a defense attorney.
- Served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, and took part in the landings and battle at Guadalcanal, where he contracted malaria.
- Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith; pg. 4-5. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
- His TV writing partner in 1954 was comedian 'Bill Dana' (qv). Dana used Adams on his own TV show, _"The Bill Dana Show" (1963)_ (qv) from 1963 to 1965, by incorporating one of Adams' stand-up characters, inept house detective Byron Glick.
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