Before “Austin Powers,” “Johnny English,” and “Top Secret!” there was “Get Smart,” the 1960s spy sitcom that mined the genre for laughs when the James Bond and “Mission: Impossible” franchises were still in their infancies. Co-created by comedy legends Mel Brook and Buck Henry, “Get Smart” ran for five seasons from 1965 to 1970, earning seven Primetime Emmys and plenty of other accolades along the way.
Stand-up comedian Don Adams starred as Maxwell Smart, the sometimes inept top-secret agent who regularly held the fate of the world in his hands … and often almost fumbled it. By his side was the beautiful, super-cool Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), who loves Maxwell despite his clumsiness and penchant for messing up missions. The central trio was rounded out by Edward Platt’s The Chief, the supportive leader of the intelligence agency CONTROL, which employed both Agent 99 and Maxwell.
“Get Smart” inspired a follow-up film, sequel TV show, and a 2008 reboot movie, but none of the sequels and remakes endeared audiences quite like the original. Of the main cast members in the show, only Feldon is still with us today, as are supporting cast members Bernie Kopell and David Ketchum. All three actors followed up their time on the show with interesting and entertaining work, and while two seem to have retired in recent years, one castmate was still trucking away on stage and screen as recently as 2022.
Barbara Feldon (Agent 99)
The leading lady of “Get Smart,” Barbara Feldon portrayed Agent 99 for all 138 episodes of the award-winning show. Feldon herself was nominated for Emmys for the series in 1968 and 1969, losing out to “I Love Lucy” superstar Lucille Ball and “The Ghost & Mrs. Muir” actor Hope Lange, respectively. After “Get Smart” ended, Feldon would reprise the role of Agent 99 in both a 1989 movie and a short-lived sequel series a few years later.
Feldon also continued to act outside the franchise, though her on-screen roles tapered off around the new millennium. She appeared in films including the beauty pageant comedy “Smile,” the family-friendly heist flick “No Deposit, No Return,” and the offbeat Tom Smothers-led Christmas special “The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas.” On television, Feldon could be spotted in plenty of TV movies, as well as episodes of shows like “Mad About You” and “Cheers” (where she played the woman Sam met every year on Valentine’s Day). Additionally, Feldon appeared on a number of variety shows, co-hosted the annual Rose Bowl Parade, and was a familiar face in TV commercials.
Feldon also had a stage career, acting in “Past Tense” on Broadway and appearing in Off-Broadway productions of “Cut the Ribbons” and “Love, Loss, and What I Wore.” In 2003, Feldon wrote the book “Living Alone and Loving It,” and as of 2020, according to author Jim Colucci (per Closer Weekly), she was living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, “where she was friends with the artists. She’s got this patron of the arts lifestyle where she’s very into the arts, theater, and classic literature.”
Bernie Kopell (Siegfried)
As the villainous counterpart to Agent Maxwell Smart, Bernie Kopell’s Ludwig Von Siegfried was as comedic as he was intimidating. The agent of KAOS (remember that Smart and 99 worked for its natural opposite, CONTROL) appeared in just 14 episodes of “Get Smart,” but made a strong impression. If you didn’t recognize Kopell in the ’60s, you certainly would by the end of the ’70s, as the actor went on to play ship’s doctor Adam Bricker for all nine seasons of the romantic anthology show “The Love Boat.”
Like Feldon, Kopell reprised his role as Siegfried in the TV movie “Get Smart, Again!” and the brief 1995 revival show, and he also cameoed (as a different character) in the 2008 reboot movie starring Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway. Kopell has always kept a sense of humor about his most famous roles, playing “Love Boat”-like characters on “Saturday Night Live” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” not to mention a “Sharknado” movie. Kopell has also guest starred (in a non-Dr. Bricker capacity) in some excellent shows, including “Silicon Valley,” “Better Things,” “Scrubs,” and “Superstore.” One of his most memorable comedic roles was in the cult favorite comedy series “Arrested Development,” where he played maritime legal expert Judge Kornzucker.
Kopell’s most recent on-screen role was in a 2022 episode of Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer.” A trained theater actor, Kopell also had a career on stage. In 2022, he co-starred with Hal Linden in the original Off Broadway production of the play “Two Jews, Talking,” written by Peabody and Emmy-winning “Mary Tyler Moore Show” writer Ed. Weinberger.
David Ketchum (Agent 13)
David Ketchum was another comedic supporting actor who brought lots of laughs to “Get Smart.” Appearing in just 13 episodes of the show, Ketchum played Agent 13, a CONTROL secret operative whose assignments typically involved squeezing into an impossibly small space. Like his co-stars, Ketchum played Agent 13 again in the ’80s follow-up film, but he only appeared in one episode of the unsuccessful sequel series in 1995.
The actor spent much of his career post-“Get Smart” taking guest roles in some of the most-loved sitcoms of the era. He appeared in “The Carol Burnett Show,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” and “Maude,” popped up in the fourth episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” as an eccentric man attending a divorced peoples’ club, and is even credited in five episodes of “Happy Days” (where he played three different characters). Ketchum also took some small roles in movies after “Get Smart” ended, and you can spot him in the late-’70s vampire rom-com “Love At First Bite,” boxing romance “The Main Event,” and Stanley Kramer’s coming-of-age Western “Bless The Beasts and Children.”
In addition, Ketchum worked extensively as a screenwriter, penning one episode of “Get Smart” and several scripts for shows including “Happy Days,” “The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour,” “The Love Boat,” and “Laverne & Shirley.” In 1974, he was nominated for a Writers’ Guild of America award for co-writing “Tuttle,” an especially memorable episode of “M*A*S*H.” Ketchum also released a comedy album titled “The Long Playing Tongue of Dave Ketchum” (which, naturally, featured album art of him licking a turntable). Ketchum hasn’t appeared on screen since 1999, and seems to rarely give interviews. However, in 2002 he told Filmfax that he was surprised to discover a new generation of fans loved “Get Smart” –- and knew the ins and outs of the show better than the actors themselves –- after getting hooked on it in reruns.
