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Edie Adams, Stage and TV Star, Dead at 81

By BOB THOMAS

posted: 259 DAYS 22 HOURS AGO

comments: 70

filed under: Highbrow, Movie News, Obits, TV News

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LOS ANGELES (Oct. 16) - Actress and singer Edie Adams, the blonde beauty who won a Tony Award for bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and who played the television foil to her husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs, has died. She was 81.

Adams died Wednesday in a Los Angeles hospital from pneumonia and cancer, publicist Henri Bollinger said.

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A graduate of Juilliard School of Music, Adams hoped to become an opera singer but instead went on to gain fame for her sketches with Kovacs and her pivotal roles in two top Broadway musicals.

For nearly two decades, she also was the sexy spokeswoman for Muriel cigars, singing and breathily cooing in TV commercials: "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?"

She was born Elizabeth Edith Enke in 1927 in Kingston, Pa., and grew up in Tenafly, N.J. She first attracted notice on the TV show "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts." Kovacs was then performing his innovative comedy show on a Philadelphia TV station, and his director saw her and invited her to audition.

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"Here was this guy with the big mustache, the big cigar and the silly hat," she recalled in 1982. "I thought, `I don't know what this is, but it's for me."'

When she auditioned for the Kovacs show, she knew a lot about opera but only three pop songs, she recalled.

"I sang them all during the audition, and if they had asked to hear another, I never would have made it," she said.

With her innocent face and refreshing manner, Adams became the ideal partner for Kovacs' far-out humor. They eloped to Mexico City in 1954.

Kovacs moved his show - which appeared in various guises in the 1950s and early 1960s - to New York, where he became the darling of critics and discriminating viewers and hugely influential on other comedians. Both Kovacs and Adams garnered Emmy nominations in 1957 for best performances in a comedy series.

Adams found success on Broadway as well.

She was acclaimed for her role as the sister to Rosalind Russell's character in the 1953 "Wonderful Town," the Comden-Green-Bernstein musical based on "My Sister Eileen."

In 1957, Adams won a Tony for best featured (supporting) actress in a musical for her role as Daisy Mae in "Li'l Abner," based on Al Capp's satirical comic strip.

"Edith Adams makes a wonderful Daisy Mae with her busty blouse, brief skirt and bare legs - the hill-billy girl with a touch of Al Capp's Hollywood glamour," The New York Times wrote.

She and Kovacs moved to Hollywood in the late 1950s, and both became active in films.

In Billy Wilder's classic "The Apartment," the 1960 Oscar winner for best picture, Adams played the spurned secretary to philandering businessman Fred MacMurray.

Among her other movies were "Lover Come Back," "Call Me Bwana" (with Bob Hope), the all-star comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (as Sid Caesar's wife), "Under the Yum Yum Tree," "The Best Man" and "The Honey Pot."

In early 1962, Kovacs left a star-filled baby shower for Mrs. Milton Berle and crashed his car into a light pole, dying instantly. He had been a carefree gambler and profligate buyer of unneeded things. He once telephoned his wife and said he had bought the California Racquet Club, with its nightclub, shops and mortgages.

His widow was faced with debts of $520,000, trouble with the Internal Revenue Service and a nasty custody battle over Kovacs' daughters, Betty and Kippie, from his first marriage. She and Kovacs also had a daughter Mia, born in 1959.

Berle, Frank Sinatra, Jack Lemmon, Dean Martin and other stars organized a TV special to raise money for her and her daughters.

"No," she said, "I can take care of my own children."

For a solid year, she worked continuously. She did movies, TV musical revues and a Las Vegas act where Groucho Marx introduced her with the comment: "There are some things Edie won't do, but nothing she can't do."

She won custody of her stepdaughters, tearfully telling reporters after the verdict: "This is the way Ernie would have wanted it."

Over a career that spanned some six decades, Adams also appeared in various stage productions; had a short-lived TV show in 1963 that earned her two Emmy nominations; performed in nightclubs and released several albums.

In the 1980s and 1990s, she made appearances on such TV shows as "Murder, She Wrote" and "Designing Women." She also played Tommy Chong's mother, Mrs. Tempest Stoner, in the first Cheech and Chong movie, "Up in Smoke," in 1978.

Over the years, she strove to keep Kovacs' comedic legacy alive by buying rights to his TV shows and repackaging them for television and videocassettes.

After her widowhood, she had two brief marriages to photographer Martin Mills and trumpeter Pete Candoli.

She is survived by her son, Joshua Mills. Daughter Mia Kovacs was killed at 22 in a 1982 car accident.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2008-10-16 12:46:54

Christopher Peterson, BuzzFoto / FilmMagic

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Sdave7596

05:10 PMOct 17 2008

I am not overly familiar with Edie Adam's work nor Mr. Kovaks. But I do remember the "I Love Lucy" show others have mentioned where they were on and Edie sang a song. She had a nice voice. God speed.....

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Richar5795

02:18 PMOct 17 2008

Compared to what we have today...you realize what a class act she really was.

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Tim0755

02:00 PMOct 17 2008

She was a CLASS ACT!!

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WENSNATI0912

01:18 PMOct 17 2008

she was a very talented lady! you forgot to mentioned that she and ernie appreared on the i love lucy show as themselves. both were very funny together. i miss that kind of clean comedy. ahhhhhhhhh the good old days!!!

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Oldironspine

12:39 PMOct 17 2008

Many of you sending in blogs about Edie and Earnie are so right.Singers who scream into a mike; that`s called singing.Comics, who if there was no words such as F--K, wouldn`t earn 10 cents a week. I`m no prude, but any moron can curse.Sign of the times, I guess.

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rjtmmtiii

12:22 PMOct 17 2008

ALL THE GREAT ACTORS AND ACTRESSES ARE SLOWLY DYING OFF LEAVING US WITH BOOZE SWILLING,DRUG TAKING,SEX CRAZED ******** IN THEIR PLACE...IT'S SAD......VERY SAD..............PETER, THAT'S A BIG AMEN TO THAT....,YOU SAID IT VERY WELL AND TRUTHFULLY....ALL WE HAVE TODAY IS A BUNCH OF OVER PAID PEOPLKE WHO BELIEVE THEY ARE ACTORS AND ACTRESSES AND MOST OF THE SINGERS AS WELL......

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McDonaldsMcdd

12:03 PMOct 17 2008

Skies2Blu...... lovely sentiment and memory. We are loosing all the great ones and you're so right about the lack of class today. They just don't make em like they used to... Sleep well Edie..D

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ProbateClaims

12:03 PMOct 17 2008

Dear Josh, my condolences to you. I met your mom several times through my friendship with Mia. I am sorry for your loss. She was a sweet lady to me. Evan

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Skies2blu

11:49 AMOct 17 2008

I worked with Edie in 1984 in a production of The Merry Widow. Not only was she clearly a "star", but she was sweet, approachable and always classy: qualities not found very often in today's world. Bye, Edie....

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Henssis1

11:32 AMOct 17 2008

R.I.P. Edie....You and Ernie were great....

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