Barbara Feldon, by the first grade had already decided she was going to be an actress. In 1955, she graduated from Carnegie Mellon University’s (then Carnegie Institute of Technology) drama department and moved to New York City shortly after. In between acting gigs, Feldon worked as a dancer in a Ziegfeld Follies revival. She also became a contestant on the quiz show ‘The $64,000 Question’, where she won the title prize for correctly answering all the questions in her particular area of expertise. In 1964, Feldon landed a guest-starring role on the drama series ‘East Side/West Side’, which caught Hollywood’s attention. After a few more guest spots on television, Feldon got the role that would provide her with pop culture immortality – the lead role of the striking and intelligent Agent 99 on the wacky spy sitcom ‘Get Smart’. After ‘Get Smart’ wrapped, Feldon found it hard to shake off her Agent 99 character. Not that being typecast as a beautiful secret agent is all that bad.
Feldon continued to make TV appearances, guest starring on a number of drama series as well as taking on supporting roles in numerous TV movies, most notably the 1975 satire ‘Smile’. She was a regular player on the short-lived ‘The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine’ and, with Jackie Cooper, co-hosted ‘Dean Martin’s Comedy World’. Feldon also found constant work as a voiceover artist for commercials such as, ‘Nice Cough Drops’ and, ‘Campbell Soup’. In 1993, she made an appearance on the NBC comedy series ‘Mad About You’, where she played a former star of a ’60’s spy series called ‘Spy Girl.’ Feldon reprised Agent 99 in the ABC reunion TV movie ‘Get Smart, Again!’, and in several episodes of the short-lived series revival ‘Get Smart’. Feldon married Lucien Verdoux-Feldon in 1958. The pair divorced in 1967 and Feldon then began a relationship with ‘Get Smart’ producer Burt Nodella. That union lasted 12 years, upon its ending Feldon moved back to New York City where she now resides. She wrote a book, ‘Living Alone and Loving It’, in 2003. Feldon will still on occasion act in off-Broadway plays, but she is, ‘no longer interested in performing’. Feldon is now an avid writer, although she has not published since 2003.
