America lost a legend with the death of Edie Adams, the Tony-award winning widow of comedian Ernie Kovacs.

Adams died in a Los Angeles hospital on Wednesday from pneumonia and cancer, said publicist Henri Bollinger, according to the Associated Press. She was 81.

The beautiful blonde with the operatic voice won fans’ hearts through her immense talent — including her celebrity impressions, sweet voice and brilliant jokes. 

In the 1950s, Edie Adams married the innovative funnyman, Ernie Kovacs. In 1962, Kovacs crashed his car into a power pole in LA. At the time of Kovacs’ tragic accident, they had a two-year-old daughter named Mia. Eerily, Mia died some 20 year later in a similar fashion when she was killed in a car crash and died from similar injuries.

In 1957, Adams won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress in "Lil’ Abner."  She frequented game shows throughout the 1950s and ’60s. She was a regular panelist on the quiz show, "Take a Good Look." For nearly two decades, she was the spokewoman for Muriel cigars, in which she cooed the famous line, "Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it sometime?"  She appeared in the movies "The Apartment" and "It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." Later in her career, Adams made several appearances in "Murder She Wrote" and "Designing Women."

Below are YouTube videos of clips capturing some of Adams’ most memorable TV appearances.

Take a good look …


Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams were the mystery guests on "What’s My Line?" At the end of the clip, Adam performs her Marilyn Monroe impression: