posted on September 6, 2005 12:14:13 PM new
LOS ANGELES - Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy first mate Gilligan on the 1960s television show "Gilligan's Island," made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died, his agent confirmed Tuesday. He was 70.
Denver died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, told The Associated Press. Denver's death was first reported by "Entertainment Tonight."
Denver had also undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery earlier this year.
Denver's wife, Dreama, and his children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin were with him when he died.
"He was my everything and I will love him forever," Dreama Denver said in a statement.
Denver's signature role was Gilligan. But he was already known to TV audiences for another iconic character, that of Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which aired from 1959 to 1963.
"Gilligan's Island" lasted on CBS from 1964 to 1967, and it was revived in later seasons with three high-rated TV movies. It was a Robinson Crusoe story about seven disparate travelers who are marooned on a deserted Pacific Island after their small boat was wrecked in a storm.
The cast: Alan Hale Jr., as Skipper Jonas Grumby; Bob Denver, as his klutzy assistant Gilligan; Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer, as rich snobs Thurston and Lovey Howell; Tina Louise, as bosomy movie star Ginger Grant; Russell Johnson, as egghead science professor Roy Hinkley Jr.; and Dawn Wells, as sweet-natured farm girl Mary Ann Summers.
TV critics hooted at "Gilligan's Island" as gag-ridden corn. Audiences adored its far-out comedy. Writer-creator Sherwood Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."
Ron
[ edited by WashingtoneBayer on Sep 6, 2005 12:24 PM ]
posted on September 6, 2005 01:02:53 PM new
Good Bye Lil'le Buddy!
That show was so kitschy! They made alot of prop mistakes! If you look closely at the picture below you will see a car in the upper right hand corner where the minow crashed the island! lol!
posted on September 6, 2005 04:55:40 PM new
I never noticed that! I wonder what became of them after they left the island? I remember the actual rescue, but don't remember if there was ever a reunion show after that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on September 6, 2005 05:26:32 PM new
I dont know, Caroline. I thought they had a rescue and then attemped a reunion? But I never saw it. Lost track of the show after a bit.
posted on September 6, 2005 06:24:21 PM new
Goodbye Gilligan! Say hello to the Skipper and the Howells!
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I was just the right age that I eagerly watched the rescue movies. There were actually three TV movies made after the series was cancelled.
In the original rescue movie, a giant hurricane hits the island the the castawarys escape by tying all their huts into a giant raft. At the end they accidently all get shipwrecked again... On the same island!
The second movie, Gilligan finds a crashed WWII plane which the Professor gets working. It's spotted by radar, and they're rescued again!
The third movie was set later, after the Howells had converted the island into a vacation resort. I strongly suspect this was intended to be a pilot for a new series, with different guest stars coming to the island every week, ala Love Boat or Fantasy Island. There was no series.
And I vaguely remember something about the Harlem Globetrotters versus a bunch of robots, but that may have been a subplot in the second or third movie.
... Is the Professor dead now or not?
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on September 6, 2005 06:29:30 PM new
.....of Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which aired from 1959 to 1963.
Oh God, I AM older than dirt. That's what they called the 'bums' in my day....beatnik's. lol
And I remember watching that show a few times....thought he was weird. Not as an actor, just the stupid part he played.
posted on September 6, 2005 07:08:04 PM new
"Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend"
I've seen the show a couple of times on Nick At Nite, and it didn't seem even remotely funny. I guess it was one of those "you had to be there" decades
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on September 6, 2005 07:38:06 PM new
I know....seems to happen to a lot of them. I have seen child actors, as adults interviewed, and some of them never could get 'adult' parts. They too were type-cast in certain 'rolls' and just couldn't break out of those rolls.
posted on September 6, 2005 08:40:03 PM new... Is the Professor dead now or not?
He's still alive and posting right here on the RT. Allthough with those Huevos Rancheros he has dripping off his face, he looks like he's dead.
He would call them Blanquillos Rancheros though. It depends on what side of the border you are on or what island you are deserted on and of course who you are stranded with.
Caroline 
That's what they called the 'bums' in my day....beatnik's. lol
