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Bob Denver

, Actor
Bob Denver
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  • Born: 9 January 1935
  • Birthplace: New Rochelle, New York
  • Died: 2 September 2005 (complications from cancer)
  • Best Known As: Gilligan on TV's Gilligan's Island

Bob Denver played the hapless first mate Gilligan in the TV sitcom Gilligan's Island. The show featured "seven stranded castaways" making the best of life on a desert island; its 98 episodes have been in reruns non-stop since their original run from 1964-67. Although Denver will be forever linked to the Gilligan character, he appeared in a number of TV series in his career, including The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-63), The Good Guys (1968-70), Dusty's Trail (1973) and Far Out Space Nuts (1975). In 1970 he replaced Woody Allen on Broadway in the lead role of Allen's Play it Again, Sam, then toured with the show. Denver also appeared in small roles in feature films and in several versions of later Gilligan's Island and Dobie Gillis revivals.

Gilligan was the character's surname; his first name was never used in a broadcast, though the show's creator Sherwood Schwartz claimed that Gilligan's first name was Willy... Denver's character in Dobie Gillis was a wacky bongo-playing beatnik named Maynard G. Krebs... The New Adventures of Gilligan was an animated version of the show on ABC from 1974-77... Denver died while being treated for cancer at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital; earlier in 2005 he had undergone quadruple bypass heart surgery. The Hollywood Reporter said after his death that in April of 2005, "Denver underwent cancer surgery to remove his voice box, leaving him speechless."

 
 
Actor:

Bob Denver

  • Born: Jan 09, 1935 in New Rochelle, New York
  • Died: Sep 02, 2005
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '60s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis, Gilligan's Island, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island
  • First Major Screen Credit: Gilligan's Island (1964)

Biography

Before becoming a comic actor, Bob Denver had previously worked as an athletic coach and history and math teacher at Corpus Christi Children's School of Pacific Palisades, CA. The puckish Denver first gained popularity when, at age 24, he played half-baked hipster Maynard G. Krebs on TV's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Before the first season was over, after completing only four episodes, "Maynard" would leave Dobie Gillis when he was drafted into the Army. This contingency was written into the Gillis series by having Maynard answer Uncle Sam's call to arms, and then by having Maynard return to the show after Denver was classified 4-F due to a neck injury. When Dobie Gillis was canceled in 1963, Denver let it be known that he was available for non-beatnik parts, only to be immediately cast as a young bongo-playing bohemian in the theatrical feature Take Her, She's Mine. The following year, Denver was finally able to shake the Maynard image when Jerry Van Dyke turned down the opportunity to play the lead in the simplistic sitcom Gilligan's Island. Denver stepped into the role of eternally bumbling castaway Gilligan, making it firmly and uniquely his own for the next three years.

Denver's first post-Gilligan's Island project was the unsuccessful Phyllis Diller film vehicle Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? (1968). In 1968, he was back to the weekly sitcom fold as cabdriver Rufus Butterworth, best pal and business partner of restaurateur Bert Gamus (Herb Edelman), on The Good Guys. This show ended after two seasons, whereupon Denver scored a personal and professional triumph as Woody Allen's replacement in the long-running Broadway comedy Play It Again, Sam. With Gilligan's Island attaining cult status in the early '70s, it was only natural that Denver cash in on the phenomenon, first as star of the Gilligan-like syndicated sitcom Dusty's Trail (1974), then as cohort to Chuck McCann on another "castaway comedy," the 1975 Saturday-morning kiddie show Far out Space Nuts. He also provided the voice to his animated likeness on a brace of cartoon series, The New Adventures of Gilligan (1974-1976) and Gilligan's Planet (1980), and reprised Gilligan in the flesh in a trio of made-for-TV features based on the original series. He also revived Maynard G. Krebs, older but no wiser, in a pair of abortive Dobie Gillis revival pilots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

 
Wikipedia: Bob Denver

Robert Osbourne "Bob" Denver (January 9 1935 – September 2 2005) was an American comedic actor best known for his role as Gilligan on the television series Gilligan's Island. Earlier, Denver had played beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the (1959-1963) TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, a characterization that was similar to Gilligan in many ways.

Early life and television career

Denver was born in New Rochelle, New York and raised in Brownwood, Texas. He graduated from Loyola University (predecessor to today's Loyola Marymount University) in Los Angeles, California and worked as a mailman and as a math teacher and physical education coach at Corpus Christi School, a Catholic elementary school in Pacific Palisades, California.

He landed the role of Maynard G. Krebs on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1959. His co-star Dwayne Hickman, who played Dobie Gillis, was also a Loyola graduate. Credited as "Robert Denver," he landed a small role in the 1963 Jimmy Stewart film, "Take Her, She's Mine," playing a beatnik poet working at a coffee shop named "The Sleeping Pill." Denver appeared in the 1964 beach movie For Those Who Think Young with Tina Louise prior to the development of Gilligan's Island.

When Dobie Gillis ended in 1963, Denver landed the role of Gilligan on Gilligan's Island.

Later career

After Gilligan's Island, he appeared in other television shows including The Good Guys (1968–1970) and Dusty's Trail (1973) (a virtual copy of Gilligan's Island, set on a lost wagon train). He also starred in a children's program, Far Out Space Nuts (1975), which was essentially Gilligan in space. Although appreciated by Bob Denver fans, none of these shows matched the wider audience success of his earlier roles.

In 1998, Denver was arrested for having a parcel of marijuana delivered to his home. He originally said that the parcel had come from Dawn Wells (who had played "Mary Ann" on Gilligan's Island) but later refused to name her in court, and testified that "some crazy fan must have sent it". The police reportedly found more of the drug and related paraphernalia in Denver's home. He pleaded no contest and received six months probation. [1] [2]

Late in his life, Denver worked in his adopted hometown of Princeton, West Virginia as an FM radio personality. He and his wife Dreama owned and operated a small "oldies format" station, WGAG-LP. He also earned a small income making public appearances, often costumed as Gilligan.

Denver underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in May 2005, and subsequently was diagnosed with throat cancer. He died on September 2, due to pneumonia and squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx[3] at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of 70, surrounded by his family — his last wife (of 28 years), the former Dreama Peery; and his children (from 4 different marriages) Patrick, Megan, Emily, and Colin.

See also

References

  1. ^ Gilligan's No Dope: Cops Plea Joal Ryan at eonline.com August 27, 1998
  2. ^ Gilligan's Dreams Dana Stevens at slate.msn.com, September 6, 2005
  3. ^ North Carolina Death Certificate (September 7, 2005) via Find A Grave.

External links

Gilligan's Island
List of episodes
Cast Bob Denver (Gilligan), Alan Hale Jr. (Skipper), Russell Johnson (Professor), Tina Louise (Ginger Grant)
Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), Jim Backus (Thurston Howell III), Natalie Schafer (Lovey Howell)
TV Movies Rescue From Gilligan's Island, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island
Cartoons The New Adventures of Gilligan, Gilligan's Planet
Other S. S. Minnow, The Adventures of Gilligan's Island (video game), Gilligan's Island (pinball), The Real Gilligan's Island, Gilligan's Wake
Crew Sherwood Schwartz, Jack Arnold, William Froug, Gerald Fried, Richard Donner

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

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AllPosters.com  Posters. Copyright © 1998-2003 AllPosters.com, Inc. All rights reserved. 
Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Bob Denver biography from Who2.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bob Denver".  Read more

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