Another TV Legend Passes Away, This Time Don Adams

The legendary Don Adams passed away late Sunday of a lung infection. Mr. Adams was world famous for his role as Maxwell "Agent 86" Smart on the hits 1960's sitcom Get Smart. He won three Emmy awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for that role. The show itself won two Emmy's as well.

Later Don went on to star with Dick Van Patten in the short lived 1971 sitcom The Partners. Don revived Maxwell Smart in the 1980 big screen movie The Nude Bomb.
Don returned to stardom in the '80s with two series. One was an animated series that is probably just as popular as Get Smart. That is of course, Inspector Gadget. Personally, I grew up on that animated series, so that is what I will best know him as. After his voice stint as Gadget, he went on to star in the Canadian sitcom Check It Out for three years. But it was Get Smart that kept calling him back he came to that role two more times, once in a reunion movie in 1989 and once on a revival series for FOX in 1995, that only lasted seven episodes. Inspector Gadget also kept calling him back with various series and specials over the years, including a big screen movie.

He also guest starred on many series such as Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Flip Wilson Show and Empty Nest.

Read more about Mr. Adams and his brilliant career here. We will all miss Don but we can relive Get Smart on DVD in 2006 from HBO Entertainment. Don "missed it by that much" on the DVDs. "Would you believe..." that? TV Land will pay tribute to Don with on-air promos and an online tribute at tvland.com. Don was 82 years old.