Bob Denver a.k.a. Gilligan died!

[DannyBeane]

OMG I loved Gilligan's Island. I remember coming home from school and watching reruns on TBS in the early to mid 90s. I loved that show like I loved the island Godzilla films as they had much the same flavor. I hope he rests in peace and that Gilligan's Island never goes off the air.


'Gilligan's Island' Star Dead at 70
By JOHN ROGERS, AP

LOS ANGELES (Sept. 7) - It was supposed to be just a three-hour tour and, if the television critics had their way, "Gilligan's Island" would have been just a one-season show.

But somewhere along the line, the television audience fell in love with the goofy character Bob Denver introduced them to when "Gilligan's Island" debuted in 1964.

It became a love affair that endured throughout the life of Denver, who died Friday at age 70 of complications related to the cancer treatment he was undergoing at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina. He had lived in recent years in Princeton, W.Va.

"One thing I can say about Bob and the show is he entertained generations, and everybody approached us and him in particular with love and a smile," said Russell Johnson, who played the eggheaded professor on "Gilligan's Island." "That's a tremendous legacy for someone from Hollywood to leave."

Although the show was canceled after three seasons, it has lived on in numerous movie sequels and reruns that continue to air.

"He baby-sat a nation," Johnson said of Denver.

Although Gilligan was his signature role, when he took the part Denver was already widely known to TV audiences for another iconic character, Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."


Did You Know?


· Denver fought for castmates Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells to be referred to as "the Professor and Mary Ann" in the theme song in place of the original lyrics "and the rest."

· According to creator Sherwood Schwartz, the full name of Denver's character was Willy Gilligan.


Sources: imdb.com


"In all the time I knew Bob, personally and professionally, we never had a harsh word," said Hickman, who added the two remained close friends over the years, even though they were as different in real life as the characters they portrayed.

"I was kind of compulsive and neat, like in 'The Odd Couple,' and he was kind of hippie-ish and avant garde," Hickman recalled Tuesday.

California state Sen. Sheila James Kuehl, who played Dobie's love-struck pursuer, Zelda Gilroy, remembered Denver as a mentor, both in acting and life.

"What he taught me about acting was when you work to make the other person look good, you end up looking good yourself," she said. "What he taught me about life was that you could love your work, but it was really more important to love your friends and family."

Maynard G. Krebs' only desire was to play the bongos and hang out at coffee houses, and he would shriek with terror every time the word "work" was mentioned.

Gilligan on the other hand was industrious but inept. His bungling stranded his tour boat's skipper and their five passengers on an uncharted desert island for all of TV eternity and, when the seven castaways actually got off the island in one reunion film, they wound up back there when Gilligan bungled their three-hour reunion cruise a year later.


You Said It




But his character was as lovable as he was incompetent, and viewers embraced the skinny goofball kid in the Buster Brown haircut and white sailor hat. So did the Minnow's skipper, Jonas Grumby, who was played by Alan Hale Jr., and who always referred to his first mate affectionately as "little buddy."

"As silly as it seems to all of us, it has made a difference in a lot of children's lives," Dawn Wells, who played farm girl Mary Ann Summers, once said. "Gilligan is a buffoon that makes mistakes and I cannot tell you how many kids come up and say, `But you loved him anyway."'

TV critics were less kind, dismissing "Gilligan's Island" as corny at best and stupid at worst. But after it was canceled by the network in 1967, it found new audiences again and again in syndicated reruns.

"It was the mid-'70s when I realized it wasn't going off the air," Denver told The Associated Press in 2001.

"I certainly didn't set out to have a series rerun forever, but it's not a bad experience at all," he added.

After "Gilligan's Island," Denver went on to star in other TV series, including "The Good Guys" and "Dusty's Trail," as well as to make numerous appearances in films and TV shows.

But he never escaped the role of Gilligan, so much so that in one of "Late Show" host David Letterman's top 10 lists - things that would make the studio audience applaud - one of the items Letterman announced was Denver's presence. The actor's brief appearance yielded a raucous response.

One of the last of the reunion films, "Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History," aired in 2001 with other actors portraying the original seven-member cast while Denver and two other surviving cast members narrated and reminisced.

The show's other cast members were Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer, as rich snobs Thurston and Lovey Howell, and Tina Louise, as bosomy movie star Ginger Grant.

Denver's death leaves Wells, Johnson and Louise as the show's only survivors.

Born in New Rochelle, N.Y., on Jan 9, 1935, Denver discovered acting while studying law at Loyola University in Los Angeles. While struggling to make it as an actor, he taught private school in Pacific Palisades and worked for a time at a post office.

After landing a small role in the 1959 Sal Mineo film "A Private Affair," he was cast as Krebs in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" and his career took off.

Denver is survived by Dreama Denver, his wife of 28 years; children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin; and a granddaughter, Elana. The family said no memorial service is planned.


09/07/05 03:18 EDT

[SparkieGojira]

Work!?

[Shigamado]

[lhb412]