Comedian Bill Dana, Who Played the Character Jose Jimenez, Dies at 92
I was born in the Space Age, and worked at Edwards AFB. Though it’s not Politically Correct now, Bill Dana’s ‘reluctant astronaut’ schtick always cracked me up. I may have to play his routine today (it’s on my iPod).
Adios, José.
Reported for title change. :smack:
Can’t say I was a fan of his on-screen work, but his writing was often the best.
He did a lot of writing for Get Smart as I recall and I know he wrote the Sammy Davis Jr. episode of All in the Family which is one of the greatest episodes in TV history.
I recall watching him as a kid in his Jose Jimenez persona. It was years before I learned that wasn’t really his name, and that he wasn’t Hispanic.
Before reading this, I’d have thought he’d died some time back, like most of the performers I remember from my childhood. I didn’t know he was a writer, too.
92 years is a good run.
As I have just now learned from you. I remember him on Ed Sullivan in the 60s.
I agree. Among other things, Bill Dana supposedly thought up the entire “would you believe” shtick for Don Adams in Get Smart.
Here’s my little-known trivia contribution. In 1966 a tv station-owner named Daniel Overmyer set out to build a new TV network to compete with ABC, NBC and CBS. The network’s first (and as it turned out, only) program was a big budget variety program called The Las Vegas Show hosted by Bill Dana.
The show got decent reviews but the entire network went belly up after five weeks.
I was born too late to appreciate him, but I’m reminded of George Costanza trying to get out of trouble with the unemployment lady by changing the subject. “Uh… THE ADDRESS IS… no? THE ADDRESS IS… Jose Jimenez… very funny…” 
My dad was friendly with some nightclub owners in Minneapolis way back in the '60s. I vaguely remember him coming home one night around two in the morning and trying to rouse me out of a sound sleep but to no avail (I must have been ten years old at the time).
The next morning, he told me he’d brought Bill Dana, who was doing a gig in the Twin Cities at the time, back to the apartment so I could meet him. :smack:
I was a big Bill Dana fan ever since I first saw him on Danny Thomas’s show. Seems to me I was watching him just the other day in what must have been a clip on YouTube, but I can’t remember which one (maybe something with Jack Benny).*
Buenas noches, Jose! 
*I remember now: It was his cameo on Batman! 
Dana substituted for Don Adams in the only Get Smart episode in which Adams did not appear. Adams supposedly refused to appear in the episode “Ice Station Siegfried” because he considered it a weak rewrite of an earlier episode and called in sick. Dana quickly was called in to substitute.
[Moderating]
Fixed typo in title.
Thanks, Chronos.
Thanks, Johnny!
One role of his that’s often forgotten…he played Sophia’s brother Angelo on the Golden Girls as a recurring character for several seasons.
Would you like a little cream in your eye?