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Actresses
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.jpg) Don Adams
Birthday: April 13, 1923
Birth
Place: New York, New York, USA
Height: 5' 9"
Below
is a complete filmography (list of movies he's appeared in) for
Don Adams. If you have any corrections or additions, please email
us at corrections@actorsofhollywood.com.
We'd also be interested in any trivia or other information you have.
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| Biography
Born in a multicultural New York City neighborhood, comedian Don Adams joined the Marines upon the outbreak of World War II. After Guadalcanal, Adams saw little action due to a life-threatening bout of blackwater fever (malaria) that kept him out of commission until the end of the war. As a civilian, Adams tried at first to carve out a career as a professional artist, taking outside jobs to support himself and his family. Blessed with a gift for mimicry, Adams and a friend teamed up for a comedy act but response was minimal, and soon Adams was involved in the cartographic and engineering business. Then in 1954, on a whim, he auditioned for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts; his routine went over, and he was on his way. Collaborating with his close friend Bill Dana, Adams developed a topnotch act full of "inside" showbiz references that fortunately never went over the heads of the audience. His best monologue was "The Defense Attorney," wherein Adams adopted the clipped speech cadence of actor William Powell. Though he would be seen in a variety of sketches during his nightclub years and his early-1960s stint as a regular on The Perry Como Show, it was the Powell imitation that scored highest. Adams would use this voice for the cartoon character of Tennessee Tuxedo in 1963, and that same year expanded on the impression in the role of inept house detective Byron Glick on The Bill Dana Show. The "spy cycle" of 1965 enabled Adams to refine the Byron Glick character into the magnificently self-confident but monumentally inept secret-agent Maxwell Smart on the hit TV sitcom Get Smart, which ran until 1970. In addition to providing Adams a conduit for his beloved movie parodies, the series also gave him an opportunity to direct. In 1971, Adams moved onto another genre-spoof TV series, The Partners, in which he played police detective Lennie Crook. Hampered by weak scripts and a death-valley timeslot opposite All in the Family, The Partners perished after thirteen weeks. After this debacle, Adams found the going rough for a while, though he made a comfortable living with nightclub appearances and guest spots on such TV series as The Love Boat. He made no fewer than three attempts to revive Get Smart between 1980 and 1994, one of which actually resulted in a (very short-lived) weekly Fox network sitcom. Adams is best known to children of the 1980s as the voice of cartoondom's bionic blockhead, Inspector Gadget. Don Adams was the brother of another comic actor, the late Richard Yarmy; Adams' cousin Robert Karvelas played secret agent Larrabee on Get Smart.
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Movie
Credits
Trivia
- Cousin of Robert Karvelas
- Beginning in 1999, Don Adams started to play Maxwell Smart once again, this time in a successful series of Canadian TV commercials for the "Buck-a-Call" long distance service.
- Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith; pg. 4-5. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
- Father of Cecily Adams.
- Father-in-law of Jim Beaver.
- Claims he changed his last name from Yarmy to Adams because he was tired of having to go last at auditions, which usually went in alphabetical order.
- 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.
- Was a close friend of "Playboy" publisher Hugh M. Hefner, and spent one night each week with Hefner (and other friends) playing cards.
- Born to a Hungarian father and Irish mother.
- Served in the US Marine Corps during World War II, and fought in the battle of Guadalcanal Island. Not only was he shot in action, but he also contracted blackwater fever. He was extremely lucky to survive, as that particular disease has a 90% fatality rate.
- His TV writing partner in 1954 was comedian Bill Dana. Dana used Adams on his own TV show, "The Bill Dana Show" (1963) from 1963 to 1965, by incorporating one of Adams' stand-up characters, inept house detective Byron Glick.
- Had stopped performing in the postwar years and became a commercial artist because he had trouble finding stand-up work. In 1954, on a fluke, he auditioned and became a winner on Arthur Godfrey's "Talent Scouts" (1948). This led to TV appearances with Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan, among others, and stardom.
- Instead of taking a large paycheck per episode (,500 per week) of "Get Smart" (1965), Adams decided to take a smaller salary and 33% share. It paid off in spades--the show has been running in syndication for decades.
- His clipped Maxwell Smart voice came from a much exaggerated takeoff on William Powell'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.
- As the inept Agent 86 on "Get Smart" (1965) Adams used to have a script assistant read his part to him once or twice just before a scene, instead of learning his lines.
- Uninterested in doing the James Bond spoof "Get Smart" (1965) series at first, he got on board after learning that Mel Brooks and Buck Henry were involved with the pilot script. Tom Poston was the first name being considered for the role, but Adams was under contract to CBS at the time and snagged the part.
- Won three Emmys for the bumbling secret agent role and the show itself won two awards for "Best Comedy," but was severely typecast after this and never did find another proper showcase to display his comic range.
- One of the first (if not the first) stand up comedian to have his own sitcom.
- Did not like the (badly timed) laugh track in "Get Smart" (1965).
- Buried at the beautifully restored Hollywood Forever Cemetery located at 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, California, USA. Plot 8, Northeast pond.
- Shares birthday with Ron Perlman.
Naked Photos of Don Adams are available at MaleStars.com. They
currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips,
Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars. |
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