Actress and singer Edie Adams, 81, the blond beauty who won a Tony Award for bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and who played the television foil to her husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs, died Wednesday in a Los Angeles hospital from pneumonia and cancer.
A graduate of Juilliard School of Music, Adams hoped to become an opera singer but instead went on to gain fame for her sketches with Kovacs and her pivotal roles in two top Broadway musicals.
For nearly two decades, she also was the sexy spokeswoman for Muriel cigars, singing and breathily cooing in TV commercials: "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?"
She was born Elizabeth Edith Enke in 1927 in Kingston, Pa., and grew up in Tenafly, N.J. She first attracted notice on the TV show "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts." Kovacs was then performing his innovative comedy show on a Philadelphia TV station, and his director saw her and invited her to audition.
Both Kovacs and Adams garnered Emmy nominations in 1957 for best performances in a comedy series.
Adams found success on Broadway as well.
She was acclaimed for her role as the sister to Rosalind Russell's character in the 1953 "Wonderful Town," the Comden-Green-Bernstein musical based on "My Sister Eileen."
In 1957, Adams won a Tony for best featured (supporting) actress in a musical for her role as Daisy Mae in "Li'l Abner," based on Al Capp's satirical comic strip.
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