Dave Ketchum, 1928 – 2025

Comic character actor Dave Ketchum (Get Smart) died on Aug. 10. He was 97. As Agent 13 on Get Smart, he was hidden in mailboxes, washing machines, toilets, lockers, trash cans, and fire hydrants: “The hardest part for me was when they put Agent 13 in a washing machine,” Ketchum later recalled. “I'm six-foot-two, so I can't fit easily into cramped places, and a washing machine is about as cramped as it gets.” Ketchum enjoyed a 40-year career in TV and films, playing recurring roles on I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster and Camp Runamuck, and turning up in The Real McCoys, The Munsters, Good Morning World, Accidental Family, Arnie, Mod Squad, Green Acres, Maude, and Happy Days, among other. Ketchum insisted that the Get Smart set was “a lot of fun! We would all laugh at bits like the ‘cone of silence,’ because they were so ridiculous.  We'd all run in when they were shooting the ‘cone of silence’ because two people doing that was so funny.”