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BOB DENVER

Gilligan’s Island star Bob Denver has died at 70. His death leaves only Russell Johnson (the professor), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), and Tina Louise (the movie star) as the show’s surviving cast members.

Posted by Tim B. on 09/06/2005 at 07:23 PM
  1. I think you mean Russell Johnson was the professor. Roy Hinkley Jr. was the character’s name, I believe.

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2005 09 06 at 08:30 PM • permalink

  2. Bon voyage, Gilligan.

    Posted by Richard_of_Oz on 2005 09 06 at 08:31 PM • permalink

  3. Must…Fight…Urge….To…Make….Sean….Penn….leaky…boat…Red…Cup…Joke…

    [walks away hitting self with terry-towelling hat]

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2005 09 06 at 08:34 PM • permalink

  4. Sources close to the actor’s passing said “Bush could have done more.”

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 06 at 08:38 PM • permalink

  5. I’ll always remember him as Maynard G Krebs. The ‘G’ is for Walter.

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2005 09 06 at 08:41 PM • permalink

  6. “Maynard lived in his own world with its own twisted logic. His name was also illogical, the “G” stood for Walter. According to the show’s creator, Maynard was named after his Aunt Walter who was married to his Uncle Edith. His speech was full of colorful phrases such as “You rang?” and “Like, I’m getting all misty”.  But Maynard
    G. Krebs will always be best remembered for his response whenever anyone mentioned the subject of work. He would instantaneously shudder, and let out a plaintive cry of “WORK!?!?””

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2005 09 06 at 08:42 PM • permalink

  7. Oh man! What a bummer. I visualized Bob Denver as perpetually young. Hard to imagine a 70-year-old Gilligan.

    Posted by Dr Alice on 2005 09 06 at 08:52 PM • permalink

  8. Farewell little buddy

    —Nora

    Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 09 06 at 08:56 PM • permalink

  9. I’ve always liked “Gilligan’s Island”.  It was a nice way to forget about the troubles of the world for a bit and indulge in insanity.  Also good were the Adam West “Batman” series, “Get Smart” and “Sgt. Bilko”.

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2005 09 06 at 09:05 PM • permalink

  10. Roy Hinkley Jr. was the character’s name

    Was the name ever actually used on the show?  I kind of think it wasn’t, having spent much of my youth watching the show, but that name only entering my consciousness as a piece of bar-bet trivia in the 90s.

    Which incidentally reminds me of another TV obscurity good for winning beers in bars: who first played the role of Lt. Columbo?

    Posted by Mike G on 2005 09 06 at 09:06 PM • permalink

  11. Whoa!  Looking at one of the links I turned up, I see that even that Columbo answer isn’t correct!

    Posted by Mike G on 2005 09 06 at 09:07 PM • permalink

  12. #4
    Actually, how long before we see this from the left? “First the Island and now Gilligan. Ratify Kyoto now!”

    Posted by Nic on 2005 09 06 at 09:24 PM • permalink

  13. Johnson error fixed. I blame climate change.

    Posted by Tim B. on 2005 09 06 at 09:32 PM • permalink

  14. I’ve looked it up.  Apparently, a radio broadcast in the first episode says his name.  However, its just “Roy Hinkley”.  No “jr”.

    Incidently, this same radio broadcast gives us Mary-Ann’s last name, “Summers”, and the Skipper’s name, “Jonas Grumby”.

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2005 09 06 at 09:40 PM • permalink

  15. However, like Lt. Columbo, Gillian’s full name was never revealed.

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2005 09 06 at 09:42 PM • permalink

  16. #9 Mike, don’t forget “F Troop”, that was the same vintage, wasn’t it?

    Where indian fights are colorful sights and nobody takes a lickin’
    Where paleface and redskin both turn chicken

    Posted by kae on 2005 09 06 at 09:59 PM • permalink

  17. Smooth sailing, little buddy.

    OK, guys. Am I the only one who thought Mary Ann was more desirable than Ginger?

    Well, I also thought Bailey was hotter than ?(Loni Anderson) on WKRP. So maybe it’s just me.  :)

    Posted by rinardman on 2005 09 06 at 09:59 PM • permalink

  18. Sean Penn’s reprise of the Gilligan role was too much for Bob.

    Yo, Rinardman, I’m with you on the Mary Ann thing. Big brown eyes and lots more oomph that ginger.

    Posted by paco on 2005 09 06 at 10:17 PM • permalink

  19. rinardman — Right there with ya.

    And folks, remember Denver’s great line from Back to the Beach: “It’s never just a three-hour tour!”

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 06 at 10:17 PM • permalink

  20. Well, I would include F-Troop, but that hasn’t been on TV in a VERY long time.  Last time I saw it on TV was in the early 90s.  However, I just found out it is comming out on DVD in the U.S. in a few days!

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2005 09 06 at 10:23 PM • permalink

  21. According to IMDB, the show’s creator Sherwood Schwartz has said that Gilligan’s first name was Willie although this was never revealed in the series.

    Posted by Good Face on 2005 09 06 at 10:24 PM • permalink

  22. Well, I also thought Bailey was hotter than ?(Loni Anderson) on WKRP.

    Didn’t we just discuss this re: Barbara Bel Geddes vs. Kim Novak in Vertigo?  For basically the same reasons?  (Or was it Mrs. Robinson vs. her daughter?)

    That’s worthy of a thread of its own: all the times Hollywood tried to convince you that Gal X was all hot and bothery when actually it was Plain Gal Y who was waaaaay more appealing.

    Posted by Mike G on 2005 09 06 at 10:28 PM • permalink

  23. I think the reason F-Troop hasn’t been shown in a long time is that its a very politically incorrect show, as are a lot of the great comedies of that era.  For F-Troop, all the American Indians were played by New York Italians with very thick accents. 


    Chief Wild Eagle: Have you ever seen a war dance?
    Roaring Chicken: Oh yes, many moons ago. Many, many, many moons.
    Chief Wild Eagle: Stop with the moons. When?
    Roaring Chicken: Forty-two years ago, last spring.

    Of course, these shows tended to mock everyone.

    Captain Wilton Parmenter: We come in peace.
    Chief Wild Eagle: What else?

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2005 09 06 at 10:32 PM • permalink

  24. Does anybody remember “Dusty’s Trail”. It was Gilligans Island set in the Wild West.
    They don’t make TV like that anymore.

    Posted by Rosco on 2005 09 06 at 11:17 PM • permalink

  25. It even had Bob Denver, right?

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2005 09 06 at 11:25 PM • permalink

  26. “Don’t any panic body just because the cumsters are ganging!”

    I use this quote all the time, especially when people talk about winning Lotto and how it wouldn’t bring happiness:
    Eunice Wentworth “Lovey” Howell: Anyone who says money can’t buy happiness doesn’t know where to shop.”

    Damn, I’m going to miss him. It’s a part of my life irrevocably past, too. I have to agree with Dr Alice: Gilligan will never be 70 years old in my mind!

    And Mary Ann killed Ginger stone dead! Oh, the fevered nights that woman caused a callow, hormonely-advantaged youth ... and she’s still not a bad-looking sheila!

    Mind you, Wrangler Jane Angelica Thrift from “F-Troop” also had a lot to answer for! (It wasn’t until years later that I found out she was only 16 when she first started in the show!!)

    Posted by BIWOZ on 2005 09 06 at 11:40 PM • permalink

  27. Clive James interviewed Bob Denver about a decade ago. He was well-weathered and hardly recognisable.

    Our family watched Gilligan’s Island every day in the 60s. It was silly and frustrating but I guess we were fascinated by it. Not much else worth viewing, apart from Gomer Pyle.

    Posted by walterplinge on 2005 09 06 at 11:42 PM • permalink

  28. #23
    Yeah, Mike, I watched a movie recently, from the 50s I think, with Peter Finch, set in Indonesia. It was hilarious, now that I have developed and a ability to identify ethnic distinctions. The movie was set in Indon because they were wearing pitchis (sp?), the little black hat, and they were speaking Bahasa Indonesia. They blessed a baby and the words were “Alluah Akbar”. The bad guys were played by continental indians or pakistanis and one of the good guys was played by a fellow who looked caucasian but with his skin and hair darkened. There was a little old man, the village elder who may have actually been Indonesian (but he might have been chinese). The mayor of the town was Mexican or Spanish American. The moved was recorded the sunday night before last.

    Here it is:

    Windom’s Way

    1:35am Sunday, August 28, 2005

    Selim Hospital, on an island in the Far East, is Dr Alec Windom’s domain - but he has the interest of the whole country and its people at heart. CAST: Peter Finch, Mary Ure DIR: Ronald Neame (1957)

    The story was good, though, about rebellion.

    I used to love Tarzan movies, but I developed a dislike of chimpanzees (hate them now), and, particularly the really old moves, the caucasian blokes painted dark to be Africans.

    Posted by kae on 2005 09 07 at 12:01 AM • permalink

  29. I LOVE YOU GILLIGAN!
    As a very naughty boy in the 70’s, who was always getting into trouble, Gilligan was the television character I could most relate to. I, just like Gilligan, was always perplexed about how I ended up in all sorts of ‘difficulties’ and on the wrong side of my mother’s hand, and slipper, and belt, and broom. I recently purchased the series on DVD and all those feelings, memories and experiences of my childhood came flooding back. 
    I’m sure your loss will be felt by many just like me. Rest in peace my friend :-(
    Thanks for posting this one Tim!

    Posted by Brian on 2005 09 07 at 12:25 AM • permalink

  30. “How did your tribe come by its name?”

    “We wandered for many moons, and when we arrived at this land, we looked around and said, ‘Where the heck are we?’”

    Paraphrased.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 09 07 at 01:04 AM • permalink

  31. The black caps are called sonkos, and fold up. I always thought the fez was a much snappier chapeau, patricularly if ringed with sweaty stains and worn by an obese, greasy sleaze in an equally stained white suit and shades.
    Do you reckon they’re going to bury Gilligan in a crappy bamboo coffin, and haul his carcass off in a pedal-powered hearse with wheels made out of coconuts?

    Posted by Habib on 2005 09 07 at 01:13 AM • permalink

  32. God, Dusty’s Trail.  That was like Ed Wood television—a really low-budget studio-shot western comedy, syndicated (way below network production values—I remember it being sort of like a Beckett play), probably because of the family hour legislation (you couldn’t legally run reruns or some damn thing in a certain hour between news and prime time, so these low-budget shows sprang up to fill the gap, thanks, FCC).  Anyway, the cast exactly paralleled Gilligan—the big gruff wagonmaster played by Forrest Tucker, his sidekick Dusty played by Bob Denver, a rich couple, a showgirl, a regular gal, a doctor, on a stagecoach lost out west….

    Speaking of F Troop, and I must say I’m kind of appalled how much interest this topic has prompted in me, Larry Storch is one of the best things in the documentary The Aristocrats.

    Posted by Mike G on 2005 09 07 at 01:16 AM • permalink

  33. #31 thanks Habib, I was sure that my Bahasa Indonesia lessons taught that the hat was pitchi (sp?). It was a long time ago, tho.

    The fez, as worn in Casablanca? I’m sure I saw Peter Lorre in a fez in a movie (or several), in a white suit and shades….

    I get annoyed when they call rice fields in Indonesia “paddys” they are called sawahs (I hope I remembered that right!!).

    #30 Oh yes, the Hakawi tribe….

    Posted by kae on 2005 09 07 at 01:20 AM • permalink

  34. A friend of a friend of mine, lived next door to Mr. Denver in Southern Cal.

    I’m told that Mr. Denver enjoyed keeping primates on his property. Aranguatangs (sp?) I believe.

    Whenever my friend’s friend’s daughters were getting their monthly visit from “Aunt Flow”, those apes would go…well…ape-shit, hooting and hollering until dear Aunt Flow would at last take her leave.

    Also, Bob seems to have liked smoking the “rope” on occasion, as this friend of a friend surmised from his own senses of what often spilled over his fence.

    Gilligan was a big part of my child-hood as well, watching the afternoon re-runs in those lazy and joyous mid-1970s summers, long before any obligations were to set in.

    Thanks little buddy!!

    P.S.

    Obviously Mary-Anne was the true hottie.

    Maybe it’s because Tina Louise’s bitchy-ness ended up soaking into poor Ginger.

    P.S.S.

    Bailey Quarters?

    All contrarian views aside, Bailey didnt hold a candle to Jennifer.

    Just ask Herb.

    Posted by Thomas on 2005 09 07 at 01:35 AM • permalink

  35. I always thought the fez was a much snappier chapeau, patricularly if ringed with sweaty stains and worn by an obese, greasy sleaze in an equally stained white suit and shades.

    Peter Ustinov in Topkapi, I think.

    Posted by walterplinge on 2005 09 07 at 01:51 AM • permalink

  36. Gilligan’s Island, F-Troop, Hogan’s Heroes and Combat.  I also loved Baa Baa Black Sheep (I think that is what it was called).

    And Mary-Anne did it for me, too.

    Posted by Razor on 2005 09 07 at 01:54 AM • permalink

  37. I believe you’re thinking of Sidney Greenstreet.

    Posted by debo.v2 on 2005 09 07 at 02:00 AM • permalink

  38. One bored Saturday morning a coupla decades ago I caught a cartoon show called Gilligan’s Planet, with the original cast’s voices except that Dawn Wells voiced both Mary Ann AND Ginger. (The final superiority of Dawn Wells is that, with her, in one you can have both.) While I was not suffiently taken with the cartoon to watch it again, it had a few nice touches, e.g., the traditional Gilligan’s Island boat’s (or spaceship’s) steering wheel aspin between scenes, and I never forgot it.

    Posted by ForNow on 2005 09 07 at 02:00 AM • permalink

  39. Actually, I think the original sleazein a fez is Fernand Charpin in Pepe Le Moko, the French film that Casablanca got the most from (not so much in direct story elements as in the idea of a teeming middle eastern city being a place of intrigue, romance, and sleazes in fezzes; also at least one cast member, Marcel Dalio).

    By the way, speaking of Gilligan and drugs, I heard that Jim Backus was a heroin addict.  Mister MAGOO!

    Posted by Mike G on 2005 09 07 at 02:04 AM • permalink

  40. Mary Ann was the hottest of the pair.  No doubt about it.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 09 07 at 02:38 AM • permalink

  41. This clinches it.

    Posted by Good Face on 2005 09 07 at 02:41 AM • permalink

  42. This was the highlight of Gilligans career- an opoch of interstellar insight, as if 2001 was made by winos with sets made out of their cardboard pied a’ terres. Makes re-runs of Doctor Who look like they were made by George Lucas.

    Posted by Habib on 2005 09 07 at 02:53 AM • permalink

  43. Aaaahh, thank you #41.  Love the tippy toes. 
    But she’s no Donna Douglas.

    Posted by reverse_swing on 2005 09 07 at 03:00 AM • permalink

  44. Habib, Chuck McCann! Another piece of children’s TV past.

    Posted by ForNow on 2005 09 07 at 03:05 AM • permalink

  45. ahhh…Trivia.

    ) Gilligan - Willy Gilligan
    2) The Skipper - Jonas Grumby
    3) Thurston Howell III - Thurston Howell III
    4) Mrs. Howell - Eunice Wentworth (Lovey) Howell
    5) Ginger - Ginger Grant
    6) The Professor - Roy Hinkley
    7) Mary Ann - Mary Ann Summers

    Posted by retro on 2005 09 07 at 05:06 AM • permalink

  46. And to think, it was just a two hour cruise, a two hour cruise.

    Posted by Frank G on 2005 09 07 at 05:39 AM • permalink

  47. ...with a hree dollar whore…a three dollar whore!

    Posted by Snickelfritz on 2005 09 07 at 06:35 AM • permalink

  48. Thanks for the memories Gilligan and Maynard G—No mammary jokes please sirs.
    Yes Kae, F troop-“oh Wilton” and Jane (indian no fooled by sap in tree),My favourite martian,Welcome back Kotter,Patty Duke,Fair Exchange,Gidget,Bewitched,Jeannie.

    Posted by crash on 2005 09 07 at 10:26 AM • permalink

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