Edie Adams, RIP

[GA Russell]

Edie Adams has died. One of the things that impressed me about her was that she had the good sense to exit the limelight when she was still beautiful and people thought well of her.

As I recall, Ernie Kovacs left her with a lot of debts to pay. After those were taken care of, she spent every penny she had to buy the videotapes of his work, which were being systematically destroyed by the networks out of some sense of frugality.

This obit is clearly inadequate, and I'll post a better one if I find it.

From the AP:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,1526931.story

Tony winner, Kovacs wife Edie Adams dies

Email Picture Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times Edie Adams autographs photos of herself and late husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs, in 2007. From the Associated Press 9:31 AM PDT, October 16, 2008

Actress and singer Edie Adams, the blonde beauty who won a Tony Award for bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and played television foil to husband Ernie Kovacs, has died. She was 81.

Publicist Henri Bollinger says Adams died in Los Angeles Wednesday from cancer and pneumonia.

• 
  Edie Adams for Muriel Cigars (1965)
  

Adams was a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and hoped to become an opera singer. Instead, she gained fame for her sketches with Kovacs and her pivotal roles in Broadway musicals. She also had a long stage and film career.

Adams also was known as the sexy spokeswoman for Muriel cigars in the 1950s and 1960s. In TV ads, she famously purred: "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?"

Edited October 16, 2008 by GA Russell

[Neal Pomea]

She was good with Sid Caesar in It's a Mad....World!

[Jazzmoose]

I know this sounds shallow, but no matter what she was doing, whenever I saw her, I fell in love...

[Dan Gould]

She was good with Sid Caesar in It's a Mad....World!

Though I have to confess I didn't recognize the name, I certainly recognized that screen credit.

GA, CNN has a fairly long obit up here. It says that she bought up the rights to Kovacs work and re-packaged it as a way to secure his comedic legacy.

[BruceH]

I know this sounds shallow, but no matter what she was doing, whenever I saw her, I fell in love...

Same here, especially when she was singing about extra "length" and "pleasure..."

[Randy Twizzle]

Even when I was a little kid I enjoyed this

[AllenLowe]

there's a very decent tv movie based on Kovacs' life, with Jeff Goldblum as Kovacs -

[GA Russell]

Thanks for that link, Dan. I had forgotten that she was in my favorite movie, Lover Come Back, and that she was at one time married to Pete Candoli.

[paul secor]

Pretty sure that Edie was one of the members of the Nairobi Trio.

[JSngry]

• 
  Edie Adams for Muriel Cigars (1965)
  

Such a FINE commercial!

[JSngry]

I know this sounds shallow, but no matter what she was doing, whenever I saw her, I fell in love...

Same here, a feeling that only deepened as I got older & she got older & she started giving intervies as her older self & her real personality started coming through & it became apparent that this was not just a "dame" , this was a smart, fun-loving woman who had her shit together in every way. How does that not attract you?

[GA Russell]

Pretty sure that Edie was one of the members of the Nairobi Trio.

That's right! She was the pianist.

I had no idea that she was a graduate of Julliard or an opera singer.