Who Is Still Alive From ‘Get Smart’?
Pitched as a mash-up between the cool James Bond and the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, Get Smart brought a world of evil supervillains and shoe phones to our TVs on Sept. 18, 1965. Cocreated by Mel Brooks two years before The Producers would kick off his film career, Get Smart followed the adventures of the less-than-cool secret agent Maxwell Smart (Don Adams, who also frequently wrote for and directed the show), as he, the beautiful Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) and a motley crew of other agents fought the baddies of KAOS. The show ran for five years, ending on May 15, 1970, with 138 episodes, and went on to have a long afterlife — not just in reruns, but as a 1989 made-for-TV movie, a short-lived 1995 sequel series and a 2008 film adaptation. But how many of the original stars are still around today, 60 years after it first debuted?
Though Edward Platt, who played the Chief, passed away in 1974, at the age of 58, star Don Adams died in 2005, and cocreator Buck Henry died in 2020, a few of the folks behind CONTROL are still with us.
Barbara Feldon (91)
Todd Williamson/Getty Images for TV Land; Everett Collection
Born Barbara Ann Hall, Feldon got her start as a model and broke through to acting after appearing in a TV ad for Top Brass men’s hair pomade. After guest roles on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Flipper, Feldon landed her role on Get Smart, which led to two Emmy nominations.
After Get Smart, Feldon guest-starred on shows from McMillan & Wife to Cheers, appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies including 1975’s Smile, and cohosted the 1978 Tournament of Roses Parade with Bob Eubanks. She also appeared in the 1989 made-for-TV sequel movie Get Smart, Again! and in the 1995 reboot.
Feldon’s most recent film role was the 2006 Danny Aiello comedy Last Request, but that’s not because she’s retired from public life; rather, Feldon has pivoted to writing. She published the 2003 book Living Alone and Loving It, and the 2021 memoir, Getting Smarter. A New York City resident, she told ReMIND in a 2023 interview that she writes every day.
Bernie Kopell (91)
Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Princess Cruises; Everett Collection
A Navy veteran and New York City native, Kopell started out working as a taxi driver and a door-to-door vacuum salesman before landing his first break as an actor on the CBS soap opera The Brighter Day. During the same period of time when he was portraying KAOS agent Siegfried, Kopell actually appeared on multiple shows, including That Girl, Bewitched, The Flying Nun, The Jack Benny Program and Green Acres. After Get Smart ended, Kopell guest-starred on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Streets of San Francisco, and Chico and the Man.
But his greatest success arrived in 1978, when he snagged the role of Adam “Doc” Bricker on The Love Boat. Kopell, Gavin MacLeod and Ted Lange were the only actors to appear in all 250 episodes of the series.
Despite his advanced age, Kopell never retired — he’s guest-starred on everything from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Charmed to Arrested Development, and had recurring roles on 2019’s Silicon Valley and the 2020 Chuck Lorre-created sitcom B Positive. His most recent role was on a 2022 episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
Mel Brooks (98)
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Peabody Awards; Neal Barr/TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
Get Smart was comedy legend Brooks’ first creation, after he spent time as a writer on Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour, where he joined forces with lifelong comedy partner Carl Reiner. But Get Smart — which Brooks created with screenwriter and actor Buck Henry, famous for writing films like The Graduate and Catch-22 — was the first project that Brooks led.
As Brooks told Time magazine shortly after the show premiered, “No one had ever done a show about an idiot before. I decided to be the first.” After ABC denounced the show as “un-American,” Brooks took Get Smart to NBC, where it ran for four seasons, before moving to CBS for the fifth. Brooks was only closely involved in the show for the first season, however; he soon shifted his focus to his directorial debut, 1967’s The Producers, which won him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
That film marked the beginning of Brooks’ classic period — throughout the ’70s, he released hits like 1974’s Oscar-nominated Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, and 1977’s High Anxiety, which was also Brooks’ first lead acting role. Brooks began acting frequently in the ’80s and ’90s, often in his own films, like Spaceballs, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. He is one of the few performers to have an EGOT — an Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Oscar.
Brooks lost longtime wife Anne Bancroft in 2005; they had one son, author Max Brooks. Brooks also had three children with his first wife, Florence Baum. Brooks also lost longtime comedy partner Carl Reiner in 2020.
Despite being nearly 100 years old, Brooks stays busy. In 2021, he released his memoir, All About Me! In 2023, he wrote, produced and narrated the Hulu series History of the World, Part II. In the same year, he also played himself on an episode of Only Murders in the Building.
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1965
February 2025
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