15:41Classic TV · 1969Get Smart Cast Then and Now: Who's Still Alive?
Episode: Get Smart (1965): Cast Then & Now 2026 — Who’s Still Alive After 61 Years?
From Hollywood Legends Era · 18 min ·
About the Get Smart Cast Then and Now
The Get Smart cast then and now is the story of a spy spoof that made America laugh at the Cold War, and of the people who brought it to life. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the series premiered on NBC on September 18, 1965, moved to CBS for its final season, and ended on May 15, 1970, after 138 episodes.
Don Adams starred as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 of CONTROL, a bumbling secret agent with a shoe phone. Barbara Feldon played the far more capable Agent 99. The show won seven Emmy Awards.
More than sixty years later, two of the twelve people remembered in this episode are still with us: Barbara Feldon and Bernie Kopell.
Who Is Still Alive From Get Smart?
Barbara Feldon as Agent 99
Before Hollywood, Barbara Feldon won the top prize on The $64,000 Question in 1957, answering questions about Shakespeare. She nearly lost the role of 99 because the show's sponsor made a deodorant soap, and she had appeared in a commercial for a rival deodorant.
Her private life was harder than viewers knew. She married Lucien Verdoux-Feldon in 1958, and they divorced in 1967. She later wrote Living Alone and Loving It (2003) and the memoir Getting Smarter, which looks back on that marriage.
Barbara Feldon is 93 and lives in New York City. Fittingly, Agent 99's real name was never revealed on the show.
Bernie Kopell as Siegfried
Bernie Kopell served in the Navy from 1955 to 1957, working as a librarian at Naval Air Station Norfolk and serving aboard the battleship USS Iowa. In Los Angeles, he drove a taxi while looking for acting work.
From 1966 to 1969, he played Siegfried, the heavily accented KAOS villain who could never quite beat Max. His second act was even bigger. He played Dr. Adam Bricker on The Love Boat from 1977 to 1986, appearing in 250 episodes.
In 1997, he married Catrina Honadle, and their son Adam was born the following year. Bernie Kopell is 93.
Remembering the Stars of Get Smart
Don Adams as Maxwell Smart
Don Adams was born Donald James Yarmy in Manhattan in 1923. He joined the Marines in 1941 and was at Guadalcanal in 1942. Despite a popular legend, he was not wounded in combat. He caught blackwater fever, a dangerous complication of malaria, and spent more than a year in a Navy hospital near Wellington, New Zealand. After recovering, he served as a drill instructor.
As a young comic, he took his first wife's stage name, Adams, because auditions were often called in alphabetical order. As Maxwell Smart, he won three Emmy Awards in a row, for 1967, 1968 and 1969.
His daughter, actress Cecily Adams, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer in 2004 at 46, and his own health declined after her death. Don Adams died on September 25, 2005, at 82. He is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Edward Platt as the Chief
Edward Platt was a trained bass-baritone who studied at Juilliard and sang with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. He played in Rebel Without a Cause and, in North by Northwest, Cary Grant's lawyer, a man named Larrabee.
As the Chief, he was the calm center of every episode, and the character never had a real name. After the show, he raised money in 1973 to produce an independent film, Santee, which did not succeed.
He was found dead in his Santa Monica apartment on March 19, 1974, at 58. Early reports cited a heart attack. Years later, his son shared that his father had died by suicide after a long struggle with untreated depression.
Robert Karvelas as Larrabee
Robert Karvelas was Don Adams's first cousin; their mothers were sisters. He grew up in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, was a Golden Gloves boxing champion while serving in the Marines during World War II, and later worked as a stockbroker.
Adams gave him small uncredited parts, and one of them, the Chief's assistant, grew into the dim-witted Larrabee. In season five, Max even jokes that people ask whether he and Larrabee are related. Karvelas appeared in all five seasons and played Larrabee one last time in Get Smart, Again! (1989). He died on December 5, 1991, at 70, and is buried at Riverside National Cemetery.
King Moody as Starker
King Moody played Starker, Siegfried's loyal henchman, from 1966 to 1969. In 1969 he also became the fourth actor to play Ronald McDonald in TV commercials, and he kept the role until 1985.
Under the makeup, few viewers knew his face. He died on February 7, 2001, in Tarzana, California, at 71.
Dick Gautier as Hymie the Robot
Dick Gautier played rock star Conrad Birdie in the original 1960 Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie and earned a Tony nomination. On Get Smart, he played Hymie, the robot who took every order literally.
He later played Robin Hood in When Things Were Rotten, voiced Rodimus Prime in The Transformers, and wrote books on drawing caricatures. He died of pneumonia on January 13, 2017, in Arcadia, California, at 85.
Dave Ketchum as Agent 13
Dave Ketchum studied physics at UCLA and toured with fellow students entertaining troops for the USO. As Agent 13, he was always hidden somewhere absurd, from mailboxes to fire hydrants.
He was also a writer, with scripts for The Andy Griffith Show, Petticoat Junction and one Get Smart episode. He died on August 10, 2025, in Thousand Oaks, California, at 97.
Victor French as Agent 44
Victor French played Agent 44 in 1965 and 1966. He became far better known as Isaiah Edwards on Little House on the Prairie and as Mark Gordon on Highway to Heaven, both alongside Michael Landon.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer while filming in Dublin and died on June 15, 1989, at 54.
William Schallert as Admiral Hargrade
Many viewers knew William Schallert best as the patient dad, Martin Lane, on The Patty Duke Show. He played the elderly Admiral Hargrade, the founder of CONTROL, on Get Smart from 1967 to 1970.
He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1979 to 1981 and founded its Committee for Performers with Disabilities. He and his wife, Leah, were married from 1949 until her death in 2015. He died on May 8, 2016, at 93, six weeks after Patty Duke.
Jane Dulo as Agent 99's Mother
Jane Dulo was born Bernice Dewlow in Baltimore in 1917 and started in vaudeville at age ten. An agent once had her perform as Jane Dillon, but she returned to Dulo after a radio host with that name threatened to sue.
From the fourth season, she played 99's mother. She also appeared on The Phil Silvers Show, McHale's Navy, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Golden Girls. She died after heart surgery on May 22, 1994, at 76.
Bill Dana, the Friend Behind "Would You Believe"
Bill Dana was born William Szathmary in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1924. A boyhood friend of Don Adams, he wrote stand-up material for him, including the "Would you believe?" jokes that Maxwell Smart made famous. His brother, Irving Szathmary, composed the Get Smart theme.
Dana became a star himself as José Jiménez. On May 5, 1961, Deke Slayton sent Alan Shepard into space with "OK, José, you're on your way." In 1970, Dana retired the character, read an obituary for him at a Latino civil rights meeting in Los Angeles, and later co-wrote the film The Nude Bomb (1980). He died on June 15, 2017, at 92.
Why Get Smart Still Makes Us Laugh
Get Smart was silly on purpose, but it was made by skilled, serious people: veterans, singers, writers and lifelong character actors. That is why it still holds up.
Which Get Smart character still makes you smile, and did you ever wish you had a shoe phone of your own?
Sources and Further Reading
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