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Bob Denver

 
Who2 Biography: Bob Denver, Actor
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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."

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Actor: Bob Denver
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jan 09, 1935 in New Rochelle, New York
  • Died: Sep 02, 2005 in North Carolina
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '60s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, 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
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Bob Denver
Born Robert Osbourne Denver
January 9, 1935(1935-01-09)
New Rochelle, New York,
United States
Died September 2, 2005 (aged 70)
Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
United States
Spouse(s) Maggie Ryan (1960-1966) 2 children
Jean Webber (1967-1970)
Carole Abrahams (1972-1975) 1 child
Dreama Peery (1979-2005) 1 child

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. Prior to Gilligan's Island, he played beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959-1963 TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Contents

Early life

Denver was born in New Rochelle, New York, and raised in Brownwood in central Texas. He graduated from Loyola University (predecessor to today's Loyola Marymount University) in Los Angeles, California. He first found work as a mailman. He would later coach physical education and teach mathematics at Corpus Christi School, a Roman Catholic elementary school in Pacific Palisades.

Television and film career

He costarred with Dwayne Hickman on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1959. Hickman, also a Loyola graduate, played the title role and Denver played Maynard G. Krebs. Also in the series was Tuesday Weld, who played Thalia Menninger, Sheila Kuehl, who played Zelda Gilroy, and Steven Franken, who played the dilettante playboy Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. While he was on Dobie Gillis, Denver also appeared on the NBC interview program Here's Hollywood. He also had a small role as an unrequited lover on the Andy Griffith Show. He landed a small role in the 1963 James Stewart film, Take Her, She's Mine, playing a beatnik poet working at a coffee shop named "The Sleeping Pill," and was credited as "Robert Denver." Denver also appeared in the 1964 beach movie For Those Who Think Young with Tina Louise prior to the development of Gilligan's Island. He also appeared in the 1967 comedy film Who's Minding the Mint.

He was remembered primarily as a comic actor, yet Denver also appeared in one dramatic role on television, as a physician (Dr. Paul Garrett) in one episode of Dr. Kildare, telecast on October 10, 1963. The episode, "If You Can't Handle the Truth," also featured Barbara Eden and Ken Berry.

When Dobie Gillis ended in 1963, Denver landed the title role on Gilligan's Island, which ran for three seasons on CBS.

Later career

Bob Denver, 1977.jpg

After the conclusion of Gilligan's Island, he performed in other shows such as The Good Guys (1968–1970), Love American Style, and Dusty's Trail (1973) (a facsimile of Gilligan's Island, with the basis of a lost wagon train). He also starred in a children's program, Far Out Space Nuts (1975), which was essentially Gilligan in space. These shows were appreciated by Bob Denver fans, but none of them 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 plant and related paraphernalia in Denver's home. He pleaded no contest and received six months probation.[1].

Later on in his life, Denver returned to his adopted home of Princeton, West Virginia and became an FM radio personality. He and his wife Dreama ran a small "oldies format" station, WGAG-LP. He also earned a small income making public appearances, often costumed as Gilligan. In 1987, he recreated the character of Gilligan as a bartender in Back to the Beach in which he complained about having been stranded on an island with a guy who could make a nuclear reactor out of coconuts but could not fix a hole in a boat. He also played Morris Binstock, "Eagleman/Children of Mentu," Fantasy Island, ABC, 1980

Read more: http://www.filmreference.com/film/28/Bob-Denver.html#ixzz0Xh9wXLbA

Death

In May 2005, Denver underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery, and was subsequently diagnosed with throat cancer. He died September 2, from pneumonia and squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx[2] at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. With him at the time of his death were his wife of 26 years, the former Dreama Peery and his children: Patrick, Megan, Emily, and Colin — born from three of his four different marriages. Denver was cremated by Hayworth-Miller Funeral Home of Winston Salem, and his ashes were given to his family.

References

  1. ^ Gilligan's Dreams Dana Stevens at slate.msn.com, September 6, 2005
  2. ^ North Carolina Death Certificate (September 7, 2005) via Find A Grave.

External links

v • d • e
Gilligan's Island
List of episodes
Cast
TV Movies
Cartoons
Other
Crew



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