Bill Dana (comedian)

Bill Dana is an American comedian, actor and screenwriter. He often appeared on television shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show, frequently in the guise of a heavily accented Bolivian character named Jos Jimnez. Dana often portrayed the Jimnez character as an astronaut.

Dana was born William Szathmary in Quincy, Massachusetts. He is of HungarianJewish descent. He took his stage name Dana after his mothers first name Dena as he felt Szathmary was unpronounceable. The youngest of six children born to Joseph and Dena Szathmary, Dana benefited from the expertise of an older brother, Arthur, who was fluent in several languages and gave his sibling his second entry into foreign languages. The first was growing up in a polyglot neighborhood where Spanish and Italian were among the languages spoken and having a Hungarian immigrant for a father. His older brother was Irving Szathmary, composer of the Get Smart theme.

Source: Wikipedia