86 dies at 82

Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s television spoof of James Bond movies Get Smart has died. He was 82.
Adams died of a lung infection late yesterday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said today, adding the actor broke his hip a year ago and had been in ill health since.

As the inept Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency CONTROL, Adams captured TV viewers with his antics in combating the evil agents of CHAOS. When his explanations failed to convince the villains or his boss, he tried another tack: "Would you believe...?" It became a popular catchphrase.

Smart was also prone to spilling things on the desk or person of his boss Thaddius (actor Edward Platt). Smart's apologetic "Sorry about that, chief" also entered the American lexicon. The spy gadgets, which aped those of the Bond movies, were a popular feature, especially the pre-cell-phone telephone in a shoe.
Get Smart twice won the Emmy for best comedy series with three Emmys for Adams as comedy actor.

Adams, who married and divorced three times and had seven children, served as the voice for the popular cartoon series Inspector Gadget. In 1980, he appeared as Maxwell Smart in a feature movie, The Nude Bomb, about a madman whose bomb destroyed people's clothing.