Edie Adams 1927-2008
“Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it sometime?” that catchy phrase in a Muriel cigars TV commercial will probably be how many remember actress and singer, Edie Adams. For two decades, Adams was the sexy spokesperson for those cigar ads.
Adams died on Wednesday, October 15, in Los Angeles after a battle with pneumonia and cancer. Adams was born Elizabeth Edith Enke in 1927 and got her first big break on the TV show, “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” She would go on to hook up with comedian Ernie Kovacs and worked with him on his TV shows during the 1950s and 1960s. They were married in 1954.
Adams’ career spanned several decades from Hollywood to Broadway. She won a best supporting actress Tony award for playing Daisy Mae in the musical “Li’l Abner,” in 1957. She appeared in a number of films from Billy Wilder’s classic, “The Apartment,” to “Call Me Bwana” (with Bob Hope),” and “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”
Also in her later years, Adams could be seen in guest roles on TV shows like “Murder She Wrote,” and “Designing Women.”
