Born William Szathmary, October 5, 1924.
Actor-writer-comedian acknowledged as the creator of the "would you believe?" joke.
Bill Dana portrays three Get Smart characters and is a credited writer of "The Nude Bomb", the 1980 feature film based on the series.
He is also the brother of Irving Szathmary, composer of the Get Smart theme music.
Appearances
- Episode #66: "Supersonic Boom". Dana's cameo appearance as a passerby who doesn't speak Spanish is something of an in-joke given that Dana rose to fame portraying the Mexican character Jose Jimenez including in The Bill Dana Show in which his friend Don Adams co-starred.
- Episode #125: "Ice Station Siegfried". When Adams was unavailable for filming, Dana stepped in to guest star as CIA Agent Quigley.
- Movie: "The Nude Bomb". In addition to his writing credit, Dana appears in the film as boutique owner "Jonathan Levinson Seigle".