Cecily Adams dies at age 46

[Capt.Rene D'Hondt]

03.04.2004
Ferengi Family Member Cecily Adams Dies

Cecily Adams, the second actress to step into the role of "Ishka" in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and who reprised the role at conventions for "The Ferengi Family Hour," has died after a four-month battle with lung cancer. She was 46.
Adams died Wednesday at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, according to her agent Bruce Tufeld. Her husband, actor Jim Beaver, was with her.

"She was a lovely, lovely girl,'' Tufeld said in an Associated Press report. "We were all destroyed by it.''

The daughter of Get Smart star Don Adams and singer Adelaide Adams was both an actress and a casting director. She concentrated more on casting in recent years and "was great with actors because she was an actor,'' Tufeld said. She was working on Fox's That '70s Show at the time of her death.

"She was a fighter. She worked up until the end,'' Tufeld said.

Adams took over the role of the female Ferengi that was originated by Andrea Martin beginning with "Ferengi Love Songs" and for three more episodes after that. "Ishka," nicknamed "Moogie," was the secretly brilliant mother of Quark and Rom, who became the lover of Grand Nagus Zek and convinced him to reform Ferengi society to raise the stature of women.

According to the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion" by Terry J. Erdmann, Adams loved the part she was playing, despite the prosthetics. "She never backs down," Adams said proudly in reference to "The Magnificent Ferengi." "I feel very fortunate to play her. She's made me grow as an actor and as a person."

For a couple of years, Adams joined castmates Max Grodenchik, Aron Eisenberg, Chase Masterson, and DS9 preproduction coordinator Lolita Fatjo to tour Star Trek conventions with the hilarious sketch called "The Ferengi Family Hour" where they reprised their respective characters in a post-DS9 time-travelling adventure to Disneyland.

Adams had guest roles in a variety of other TV shows including Just Shoot Me, Murphy Brown and Party of Five.

Besides her husband, parents and siblings, she is survived by a two-year-old daughter, Madeline.

UPDATE: A public memorial service will be held at the Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, on Saturday, March 13, 2004 at 1 p.m. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Cecily Adams Fund, c/o Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles, CA 90068.

STARTREK.COM extends condolences to all the family and friends of Cecily Adams. We will all miss her tremendously.

[Theresa]

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