Edie Adams

 Edie Adams, born Edith Elizabeth Enke (April 16, 1927 – October 15, 2008)

She was a businesswoman, singer, actress and comedian. Adams was an Emmy Award and Tony Award winner. She was well known for her impersonations of sexy stars on stage and television, especially Marilyn Monroe. She was the wife and frequent television partner of Ernie Kovacs until his death in a 1962 car accident. In 1949-50, she appeared in the early live television show Bonnie Maid's Versatile Varieties as one of the original "Bonnie Maids" doing live commercials for the sponsor. In 1950, she won the "Miss U.S. Television" beauty contest, which led to an appearance with Milton Berle on his television show. Her earliest television work billed her as Edith Adams. One of her early appearances was on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Adams began working regularly on television with comedian Ernie Kovacs and talk show pioneer Jack Paar. After a courtship that included mariachi bands and an unexpected diamond engagement ring, Adams and Ernie Kovacs eloped; they were married on September 12, 1954, in Mexico City. After Kovacs' death, his network, ABC, gave Adams a chance with her own show, Here's Edie, which received five Emmy nominations but lasted one season, in 1963. Adams played supporting roles in several films in the 1960s, including the embittered secretary of two-timing Fred MacMurray in the Oscar-winning film The Apartment (1960). She was the wife of a presidential candidate (played by Cliff Robertson) in The Best Man (1964) and was reunited with Robertson for the comedy The Honey Pot (1967). In 2003, as one of the surviving headliners from the all-star comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, she joined actors Marvin Kaplan and Sid Caesar at a 40th anniversary celebration of the movie. In addition, Adams started her own businesses: Edie Adams Cosmetics, which were sold door to door, and Edie Adams Cut 'n' Curl beauty salons, which she began in 1967. She once owned a 160-acre California almond farm and was the spokeswoman for Sun Giant nuts. Despite being in debt at the time of Kovacs' death in 1962, with her commerical work and business ventures, she was able to become a millionaire later in life. Edie Adams died in Los Angeles, California on October 15, 2008, at age 81, from cancer and pneumonia. She is buried next to Kovacs at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills