“Gilligan’s Island” actor Denver dies at age 70

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bob Denver, who bumbled and
stumbled his way to television stardom as goofy castaway
Gilligan in the 1960s comedy “Gilligan’s Island,” has died of
complications from cancer, his agent said on Tuesday.

Denver, 70, also known as beatnik Maynard G. Krebs in “The
Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” died on Friday at the Wake Forest
University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, his agent Mike Eisenstadt said.

“Gilligan’s Island” aired from 1964 to 1967, and became one
of TV’s most enduring comedies in reruns with a tale of seven
people who were lost at sea and stranded on a deserted island.

The CBS network aired 98 episodes before it canceled the
show, but “Gilligan’s Island” became a huge hit in reruns
during the 1970s. It still airs on TV some 40 years later.

Gilligan, the first mate on a tourist boat that ran aground
and stranded wealthy Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus), his
wife, Lovey (Natalile Schafer) and others playful characters,
was a lovable and silly character. He always put the castaways
in a jam before the Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.) would come to his
rescue.

Denver played a bongo-playing beatnik on “Dobie Gillis”
from 1959 through 1963. That role, which he took at age 24,
also required him to play a somewhat dimwitted character, and
while the actor would go on to other roles, none were as
well-known as Krebs and Gilligan.

In fact, he became so closely identified with Gilligan in
his red shirt and sailor hat that Denver found it hard to win
other starring roles during his 50-year career.

He enjoyed a successful run on Broadway in the 1970s as
Woody Allen’s replacement in “Play it Again, Sam,” but when
that ended, Denver went back to TV sitcoms. He appeared in
several revivals and reunion shows for “Gilligan’s Island” and
“Dobie Gillis” in the 1970s and 1980s

Eisenstadt did not provide details of Denver’s death other
than to say that he had been in the hospital for cancer
treatment. The actor’s family did not want to disclose
specifics about the type of cancer, Eisenstadt said.

Denver was born in New Rochelle, New York and went to
college in Los Angeles. Before taking up acting, he worked as
an athletic coach and teacher of math and history.

Denver is survived by his wife of 28 years, Dreama, who was
at his side when he died, and his four children.