Adams also provided voices for the animated series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963–1966) and Inspector Gadget (1983–1986) as well as several revivals and spinoffs of the latter in the 1990s.

[4] In May 1942, Yarmy's unit was transported to Samoa for further training, and then participated in the Battle of Guadalcanal in August 1942 in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

Contrary to urban legend, he was not wounded in combat,[contradictory] but did contract blackwater fever, a serious complication of malaria, known for a 90% rate of fatality.

[4] After his discharge in 1945, Yarmy went to Florida and worked as a comic in a strip club, doing impersonations of celebrities, but he refused to do "blue" material and was fired.

[4] Adams' work on television began in 1954 when he won on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts with a stand-up comedy act written by boyhood friend Bill Dana.

[9] He had a role on the NBC sitcom The Bill Dana Show (1963–65) as a bumbling hotel detective named Byron Glick.

They were asked to write a spoof that combined elements from two of the most popular film series at the time: James Bond and The Pink Panther (Inspector Clouseau).

Feldon said, "Part of the pop fervor for Agent 86 was because Don did such an extreme portrayal of the character that it made it easy to imitate.

He was nominated for Emmys four seasons in a row, from 1966 to 1969, for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series.

Adams had been typecast as Maxwell Smart and was unable to escape the image, although he had success as the voice of the title character of Inspector Gadget.

The show was filmed in two 15-minute segments, in each of which a randomly selected audience member would "act" to re-create a scene from a Hollywood movie as accurately as possible.

[11] Adams resurrected the Maxwell Smart character for a series of television commercials for Savemart, a retail chain that sold audio and video equipment.

One of Adams's last public appearances was at the Get Smart Gathering on November 7, 2003, at a North Hollywood restaurant, in which fans of the show joined the cast and some of the creative talent of the series.

His last roles were the character of Principal Hickey in the late-1990s/early-2000s Disney cartoon Pepper Ann and the voice of Brain the Dog in the end credits for the 1999 film version of Inspector Gadget.

Robert Karvelas, who played the role of Agent Larabee on Get Smart, was Adams' cousin on his mother's side of the family.

A compulsive gambler, according to his longtime friend Bill Dana, Adams "could be very devoted to his family if you reminded him about it, [but] Don's whole life was focused around gambling.

"[14] Among his eulogists were his decades-long friends Barbara Feldon; Don Rickles; James Caan; Bill Dana; and his son-in-law, actor Jim Beaver (widower of Adams' daughter Cecily).