News

Olive Sturgess, who appeared on about two dozen TV Westerns and got to act alongside Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Jack Nicholson in the Roger Corman 1963 cult horror spoof The Raven, died Feb. 19, her family announced. She was 91.

Through two decades starting in the mid-1950s, the fresh-faced Sturgess showed up on (by her count) about 300 episodes of television, including 12 from 1956-59 as the girlfriend of Dwayne Hickman’s character on the NBC-CBS sitcom The Bob Cummings Show.

The Canadian-born starlet also was seen on such series as West Point, Perry Mason, Panic!, The Donna Reed Show, Hawaiian Eye, The Danny Thomas Show, Petticoat Junction, Dr. Kildare and Ironside, but TV Westerns dominated her résumé.

Sturgess appeared on Tales of Wells Fargo, Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, U.S. Marshal, Rawhide, Have Gun — Will Travel, Lawman, Laramie, The Rebel, The Tall Man, Bronco, Whispering Smith, Maverick, Wide Country, Destry,...

The Arrowverse was built upon the culmination of several DC characters pioneering their own television shows on the CW network. However, most fans forget that the entirety of that television universe was spawned from the creativity and the brilliance of the original Arrow show. Starring Stephen Amell as the Emerald Archer, Arrow saw a reimagined look at the character, taking away his quippy lines and Robin Hood-esque design in favor of something darker, as The Dark Knight movies had just shown how gritty superheroes can be. The show was a smash hit, which earned it another season. A new season meant new ideas, and the creators of Arrow thought about the possibilities of the greatest DC universe, eventually leading to the introduction of Grant Gustin as a notably fast scientist from the comics.

The Flash was originally supposed to be in a few episodes of Arrow, the third of which...

Ron Ely, the hunky and handsome Texas native who portrayed the Lord of the Jungle on the first Tarzan series for television, has died, his daughter Kirsten told Fox News Digital. He was 86.

He died Sept. 29 at the home of one of his daughters near Santa Barbara, The New York Times reported.

Ely also hosted the Miss America pageant in 1980 and 1981, stepping in for longtime emcee Bert Parks, and presided over a syndicated game show called Face the Music around that time.

The 6-foot-4, blue-eyed Ely had appeared opposite Clint Walker in The Night of the Grizzly and with Ursula Andress in Once Before I Die in films released in 1966 when he was hired to don the loincloth in a new NBC series executive produced by Sy Weintraub.

Ely was offered the Tarzan gig after former NFL linebacker Mike Henry, who had played the Edgar Rice Burroughs creation in three ’60s films,...

Before Bob Denver was the blundering first mate Gilligan, he was the jazz-loving beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." Max Shulman's sitcom, which he adapted from his own short stories, centered on, well, Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman), a young man who was hopelessly fixated on the pursuit of wealth and success, convinced they were the keys to getting young women to fall in love with him. It was Denver as Dobie's close buddy Maynard who really caused a stir, though, winning viewers over with his laid-back, quirky personality and relatable aversion to work. (We appreciate a fella who doesn't kowtow to the demands of the capitalist machine.)

As popular as "Dobie Gillis" was for CBS, airing for four seasons from 1959 to 1963, it would soon be eclipsed by another comedy series on the network anchored (no pun intended) by Denver -- "Gilligan's Island," of course.

When Bernard Hill died recently, I wrote about the unique feeling accompanying the real-life death of an actor when that actor has been especially associated with a dramatic death scene onscreen. That feeling is only magnified when it’s been a very long time since the actor performed the demise in question. Juanita Moore, with her character’s funeral in 1959’s “Imitation of Life” being the grandest of any in the movies, only dying in real life in 2013 is an example.

One of the most extreme of these has just occurred, a death that also represents the severing of another critical link to Old Hollywood. Darryl Hickman died this past Wednesday, May 22, at the age of 92. He was a child actor in “The Prisoner of Zenda” and John Ford’s “The Grapes of Wrath” who, upon exiting his teenage years, decided he wanted to become a monk. He entered a...

Darryl Hickman, a child actor in Leave Her to Heaven and The Grapes of Wrath, died at 92 on Wednesday, May 22, his family said. No cause was given.

Hickman appeared in more than 40 films, having been a contract player at Paramount and MGM.

He portrayed the youngest member of the Joad family, Winfield, in John Ford’s 1940 adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath, as well as a role as the younger version of Van Heflin’s character in the 1946 noir, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.

In 1945’s Leave Her to Heaven, Hickman played Danny, younger brother to Cornel Wilde’s Richard. Danny was disabled by polio and when he comes to live with Richard and his wife, Ellen (Gene Tierney). He drowns by Ellen’s hand in the middle of a lake due to jealousy of Richard’s affection for the boy.

In 1951, he briefly retired from acting to enter a monastery,...

Click here to read the full article.

Mickey Kuhn, the busy child actor of the 1930s and ’40s who played Beau Wilkes, the son of Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard’s characters, in Gone With the Wind, has died. He was 90.

Kuhn died Sunday in a hospice facility in Naples, Florida, his wife, Barbara, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was in excellent health until recently, she said.

Kuhn also portrayed the ward of a famous movie cop in Dick Tracy (1945) and younger versions of Kirk Douglas and Montgomery Clift in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) and John Wayne’s Red River (1948), respectively.

And in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Kuhn reunited with Gwtw actress Vivien Leigh to appear as a sailor who gives Blanche DuBois directions. (Was he Leigh’s good luck charm? She won her two best actress Oscars with him in the cast.)

Kuhn was 6 when...

John Legend took the stage at the Emmy Awards on Monday to honor the stars who left us during the past year. The “In Memoriam” segment was one of the highlights of the night, with the Egot winner performing his new song “Pieces.”

Hollywood & Media Deaths 2022: A Photo Gallery

Anthony Anderson presented Legend and the segment, saying, “It never feels like the right time to say goodbye to a loved one, a friend or a cherished icon.”

He added. “To quote Shakespeare, ‘All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players, they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.’ As we acknowledge the legends within our industry will pass on, we celebrate all that they created and shared with the world. May they rest in peace and power.”

Emmy Red Carpet Photos: Best Looks Of 2022

During Legend’s performance,...

Producers of this Monday’s Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony have some difficult decisions to make about who to honor during the emotional In Memoriam segment. John Legend will perform “Pieces,” a new song he has written for the tribute. Kenan Thompson will host the 2022 Emmys for NBC at 8 p.m. Et; 5 p.m. Pt.

Our list below includes almost 100 people who made a strong contribution to television and have died since mid-September of 2021 following the previous Emmys ceremony. Only about 40-45 of these people will probably be in the video segment. Certain to be featured will be TV Academy Hall of Fame members actress Betty White and director Jay Sandrich.Other prominent names almost certainly chosen are: Mary Alice (acting winner), Louie Anderson (acting winner), James Caan (acting nominee), Anne Heche (acting winner), Howard Hesseman (acting nominee), William Hurt (acting nominee), Gregory Itzin (acting nominee), Ray Liotta (acting winner), Burt Metcalfe...

Sunday’s SAG Awards ceremony will return to its normal two-hour live format on TNT and TBS. One of the highlights each year is the special In Memoriam segment. It’s been a particularly rough year with over 100 deaths of prominent actors and actresses who were likely members of SAG/AFTRA. Show producers typically are able to include approximately 40-50 people in a tribute. The 2021 segment saluted 55 people because they had responsibility for 14 months instead of 12.

Among that group will certainly be previous SAG president Ed Asner, who was also a life achievement award recipient. That honorary award was also presented to Sidney Poitier and Betty White, who both died this past year.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2022: In Memoriam Gallery

Who else might be featured in the 2022 tribute? Look for Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis, Oscar nominees Ned Beatty, Peter Bogdanovich and Dean Stockwell, plus Emmy champs Louie Anderson, Michael Constantine, Charles Grodin,...

Dwayne Hickman, whose turn as eternal romantic Dobie Gillis made him a teen idol in the 1960s, has died this morning at age 87 in his Los Angeles home of complications from Parkinson’s Disease.

An actor, producer, director and artist, Hickman starred in the hit TV series The Bob Cummings Show and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He died on the birthday of his dearest friend and former “Dobie …” cast member Bob Denver, whom he again costarred opposite in the CBS, movie of the week, Surviving Gilligan’s Island, playing a CBS network executive.

Born Dwayne Bernard Hickman on May 18, 1934 in Los Angeles, Hickma’s earliest screen appearances included began at age six, making his film debut, as an extra in The Grapes of Wrath.

As a teen he starred in his first television series opposite Bob Cummings, where he honed his comedic skills under the watchful eyes of...

Dwayne Bernard Hickman, an actor, producer and television director best known for his starring role in the 1950s and ’60s sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” died of complications related to Parkinson’s disease on Sunday. He was 87 years old.

Hickman’s death was confirmed to Variety by the actor’s public relations head Harlan Boll.

Born on May 18, 1934 in Los Angeles, Calif., Hickman began screen acting at a young age with appearances in “The Boy With the Green Hair” and 1940’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” As a teenager, he starred as Chuck MacDonald in “The Bob Cummings Show,” acting alongside the titular comedian across the sitcom’s four-year run.

In 1959, Hickman earned the marquee role on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” The actor starred in all 148 episodes of the 20th Century Fox sitcom. As the first major television series to feature teenagers as its primary characters, “Dobie...

"Life's A Beach"

By Lee Pfeiffer

When it comes to defining cinematic guilty pleasures, one need not look any further than the lame-brained beach movies that were marketed to teenagers in the mid-1960s. The formula started in 1963 with "Beach Party", teaming Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon for the first time as loved-starved teens who are addicted to fun and sun in the surf. The film was such a hit that it spawned numerous sequels, delighting producers Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson and American International, which was mining gold by making big profits from low-budget productions. The beach series didn't vary much in terms of content and many of the most popular actors were utilized in each successive film. There were also simlarly-themed films starring Avalon in different geographical settings. But if the beach series burned brightly, its flame was short-lived. By 1965, the young audiences that initially craved...

Tommy Kirk, one of Disney’s major young stars of the 1950s and early ’60s with performances in generational touchstone films such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog and Son of Flubber, died Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 79.

His death was announced on Facebook by friend and fellow child star Paul Petersen.

Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery

“My friend of many decades, Tommy Kirk, was found dead last night,” wrote Petersen, who has long been an advocate for child actors through his organization A Minor Consideration. “Tommy was intensely private. He lived alone in Las Vegas, close to his friend … and Ol Yeller co-star, Bev Washburn … and it was she who called me this morning. Tommy was gay and estranged from what remains of his blood-family. We in A Minor Consideration are Tommy’s family. Without apology. We will take care of this.

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini

Blu ray

Olive Films

1965 / 2.35 : 1 / 93 Min.

Starring Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Mickey Rooney

Cinematography by Floyd Crosby

Directed by William Asher

Sam Arkoff and James Nicholson, the men behind such teen-friendly drive-in fare as Reform School Girl and High School Hellcats, caught a monster wave with 1963’s Beach Party and hung on for three long years before sinking into the sunset with Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, a haunted house spoof starring Tommy Kirk and a frail Boris Karloff.

It was a wild ride sustained by Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon and a rotating cast of fun-loving deadbeats who would become as familiar to 60’s audiences as Eugene Pallette and Hugh Herbert were to depression era movie fans. As weighty as a cherry popsicle in July, the movies were aimed at high schoolers but the gags were older than dirt – vaudeville humor with that Coppertone tan.

Bobby Diamond, who portrayed a young orphan opposite Peter Graves and a wild stallion on the 1950s NBC series Fury, has died. He was 75.

Diamond died May 15 of cancer at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif., author and longtime friend Laurie Jacobson told The Hollywood Reporter.

Diamond also starred with Jack Klugman on "In Praise of Pip," a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, and played Duncan "Dunky" Gillis, a cousin of Dwayne Hickman's title character, on the final season of another CBS series, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Legend has it he ...

Bobby Diamond, who portrayed a young orphan opposite Peter Graves and a wild stallion on the 1950s NBC series Fury, has died. He was 75.

Diamond died May 15 of cancer at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif., author and longtime friend Laurie Jacobson told The Hollywood Reporter.

Diamond also starred with Jack Klugman on "In Praise of Pip," a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, and played Duncan "Dunky" Gillis, a cousin of Dwayne Hickman's title character, on the final season of another CBS series, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Legend has it he ...

Actress Deanna Lund died on June 22 at her home in Century City of pancreatic cancer. She was 81.

Lund played one of the seven castaways trying to survive in a world of large, unfriendly people on the 1960s ABC series Land of the Giants. Her Valerie Scott was a selfish party girl on the Irwin Allen-created series, which aired for two seasons, from September 1968 until March 1970.

Set in the year 1983, 20th Century Fox's Land of the Giants revolved around the crew and passengers of the spaceship Spindrift, which on the way to London crashed on a planet whose humanoid inhabitants were hostile and unbelievably huge. The show was extremely expensive to make, costing a reported $250,000 an episode.

The sexy Lund had appeared as a redheaded lesbian stripper opposite Frank Sinatra in Tony Rome (1967) and as Anna Gram, a moll working for The Riddler (John Astin), on ABC's Batman, leading...

Sad news for comic book and vintage TV fans today. Yvonne Craig, who played Barbara Gordon (aka Batgirl) on the original 1966 Batman TV series, passed away on Monday night at the age of 78. Her family confirmed the actress' death on her official website, YvonneCraig.com. Fans were so stricken with grief, that they actually caused the website to crash shortly after news began to spread. Hopefully it will be back up and running later in the day.

Yvonne Craig passed away at her home in Pacific Palisades, surrounded by her immediate family and comforted by Hospice yesterday night. She died from complications brought about from breast cancer that had metastasized to her liver. She is survived by her husband, Kenneth Aldrich, her sister Meridel Carson and nephews Christopher and Todd Carson. A private service is being planned with no date set at the present time. In lieu of flowers, fans...

Rip our beloved Bat Beauty! A punch in the gut to Batfans. A first crush for men of a certain age, the beautiful Yvonne Craig has died at the age of 78.

Yvonne was born on the 16th of May 1937. In her early life before her television career she trained to be a ballet teacher. She gradually moved into acting during the 1950s. Before appearing on television she starred in a few films including; The Young Land, The Gene Krupa Story, Ski Party, and High Time. She even played alongside Elvis Presley in Kissin’ Cousins and briefly dated the King. During the mid-1960s Yvonne moved from film into television, where she appeared in many shows including Man With a Camera, Wagon Train, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. More famously she played “Marta” (a green skinned Orion) in the third series Star Trek episode entitled “Whom Gods Destroy” in 1968.

1967 she was...

The recent passing of Lesley Gore was not noted on We Are Movie Geeks, I’d like to correct that and as a tribute to her review one of the best concerts ever captured on film (actually on video but I’ll get to that soon.)

Born Lesley Sue Goldstein in New York City on May 2nd 1946 Lesley Gore passed on February 16, this year. She never tried her hand at acting (to my knowledge) yet she appeared in several films and many television shows singing one of or more of her considerable string of hits in a very strong voice, for such a little lady.

It’s My Party is probably her most famous and well remembered song but Judy’s Turn To Cry, Maybe I Know, Sunshine Lollipops, You Don’t Own Me and several other songs charted during her long career. She never resented being consigned to the...

Claudette Colbert movies on Turner Classic Movies: From ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’ to TCM premiere ‘Skylark’ (photo: Claudette Colbert and Maurice Chevalier in ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’) Claudette Colbert, the studio era’s perky, independent-minded — and French-born — "all-American" girlfriend (and later all-American wife and mother), is Turner Classic Movies’ star of the day today, August 18, 2014, as TCM continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" film series. Colbert, a surprise Best Actress Academy Award winner for Frank Capra’s 1934 comedy It Happened One Night, was one Paramount’s biggest box office draws for more than decade and Hollywood’s top-paid female star of 1938, with reported earnings of $426,944 — or about $7.21 million in 2014 dollars. (See also: TCM’s Claudette Colbert day in 2011.) Right now, TCM is showing Ernst Lubitsch’s light (but ultimately bittersweet) romantic comedy-musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), a Best Picture Academy Award nominee starring Maurice Chevalier as a French-accented Central European lieutenant in...

Jane Fonda: From ‘Vietnam Traitor’ to AFI Award and Screen Legend status (photo: Jason Bateman and Jane Fonda in ‘This Is Where I Leave You’) (See previous post: “Jane Fonda Movies: Anti-Establishment Heroine.”) Turner Classic Movies will also be showing the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring Jane Fonda, the former “Vietnam Traitor” and Barbarella-style sex kitten who has become a living American screen legend (and healthy-living guru). Believe it or not, Fonda, who still looks disarmingly great, will be turning 77 years old next December 21; she’s actually older than her father Henry Fonda was while playing Katharine Hepburn’s ailing husband in Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond. (Henry Fonda died at age 77 in August 1982.) Jane Fonda movies in 2014 and 2015 Following a 15-year absence (mostly during the time she was married to media mogul Ted Turner), Jane Fonda resumed her film acting career in 2005, playing Jennifer Lopez...

Alcoholism in the movies have been played for both dramatic and comical effect. In fact some of the binge drinking done on the big screen have garnered considerable praise and pathos resulting in many performers winning Oscars and Oscar nominations based on this very serious addiction.

The alcoholic in cinema is larger in life because it is a societal reflection of the demons and destruction that affect millions of people globally. Film allows for the liberty to use creative licenses to highlight the physical and psychological pain and false feelings of pleasure to convey the true face of alcoholism and its hold on fictional characterizations that are bound by the poisonous allure of the bottle. However heavy-handed or hearty it may seem in portraying the detached drinker or happy drunk one thing is for certain…the depth and dimensional range of the chronic cinema sipper has never disappointed in giving...

Robert Osborne is used to interviewing screen legends, but now he knows how it feels to sit in the other chair.

As Turner Classic Movies begins its 20th-anniversary year, its principal host -- who was an actor before he became a Hollywood columnist and historian -- recounts how his career began and progressed in a new "Private Screenings" special at 8 p.m. Et/5 Pt Monday (Jan. 6). Alec Baldwin, who hosted the Saturday-night TCM film series "The Essentials" with Osborne from 2009 to 2011, asks the questions.

"It never occurred to me," the ever-genial Osborne tells Zap2it of becoming a "Private Screenings" guest. "Way back, Dwayne Hickman [the former star of TV's 'The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'] said, 'You know, you come into everybody's living room every night, and they don't know you. They like you, but they don't know much about you. Sometime, you should do a documentary about yourself.'

"I think that was even before we had a 'Private Screenings' franchise,...

Last week on Hollywood! Adapt This! we brought up the idea of the global phenomenon of Pokémon for a live-action feature reboot.  This week we'll go way more obscure and talk about a series of short stories from the early 1950s that were previously adapted into one feature film and a television series in the early 1960s.  At the center of the comedic stories about failed relationships was a teenage boy and his beatnik friend.  Over half a century later, it's time for a fresh look at this property.  Hit the jump to find out more. Hollywood! Adapt this: The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Not everything on Hollywood! Adapt This! needs to be a feature adaptation.  In this case, we'll make an argument for a fresh take on the Dobie Gillis TV series, either as a contemporary re-imagining or a retro sitcom set in the 50s. What It's About...

The classic CBS sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which aired from 1959 to 1963, will finally be getting a DVD release -- Shout! Factory has picked up the right to release a box set of the complete series that will reach stores sometime this year, reports The Wrap. The show hasn't been previously available on DVD -- nor has Shout! Factory's other new acquisition, the ABC late night sketch comedy show "Fridays," an attempt to capitalize on the decline of "Saturday Night Live" in the non-Lorne Michaels era. "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which starred Dwayne Hickman as the popularity- and wealth-seeking titlular teenager, featured a young Warren Beatty as one of Dobie's rich kid antagonists and Tuesday Weld as Dobie's money-obsessed object of desire. The show was based on a collection of short stories by Max Shulman, which also spawed the 1953 musical "The Affairs of Dobie Gillis,...

Shout! Factory has acquired worldwide rights to "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" and "Fridays." It marks the first time that either show has appeared on DVD. "Dobie Gillis" (below) centers on a teenage boy (Dwayne Hickman) and his struggles to win over various girls and achieve popularity. "Fridays" was a sketch comedy show that was ABC's failed attempt to duplicate the success of rival NBC's "Saturday Night Live." Despite only being on the air for just three seasons, it served as a stepping stone for a number of comedians like Larry...

Glenn and Mike were at the movies – separately – just so they could have a heart-to-heart conversation about The Amazing Spider-Man. This time, each has a fairly different opinion.

Of course, there are spoilers ahead.

Glenn: So, this is going to be an interesting exercise. I believe I could hear your teeth grinding from Norwalk…

Mike: You liked it?

Glenn: Most of it, yes.

Mike: Jeez. I found only the last third the least bit tolerable. What did you like about it?

Glenn: The casting, for starters.

Mike: The casting was fine. But it was in service of a director who put everything he learned in community college up on the screen.

Glenn: Andrew Garfield won me over very quickly, with a naturalness that Tobey Maguire never quite seemed to have. Emma Stone could have carried the film even if she didn’t look just like a John Romita drawing.

Mike:...

Article by Dana Jung

Dr. Goldfoot And The Bikini Machine (1965) was a wild and funny send-up of beach movies, James Bond spy films, and horror movie cliches. It boasted Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman (TVs Dobie Gillis), and the beautiful Susan Hart as a robot who speaks in a variety of foreign accents. The great Vincent Price also stars as the mad scientist/evil supervillain of the title, a role he would reprise in both a television musical special promoting the film, The Wild Weird World Of Dr. Goldfoot (which also included Hart), and the Italian-made sequel Dr. Goldfoot And The Girl Bombs (1966), directed by giallo and horror meistro Mario Bava. And while Bikini Machine and Wild Weird World have both been released on DVD (but are currently out-of-print), the Girl Bombs sequel still has yet to find a home on DVD.

Dr. Goldfoot And The Girl Bombs is interesting in...

There are few faces that are more closely identified with classic television than that of the late Bob Denver. One of his characters is so recognizable that you just have to wear a white hat and a red shirt to be called "Gilligan."

Denver starred in not one but two hit television shows. In The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, he played Maynard G. Krebs, television's first beatnik. Opposite Dwayne Hickman's regular-guy Dobie Gillis, Denver is the ideal comic sidekick.

After four years of that, Denver segued to the starring role in Sherwood Schwartz's Gilligan's Island. Working with Alan Hale Jr. and the rest of the sitcom's cast, Denver displayed his talent for physical comedy and treating absurd situations with honesty.

Gilligan lasted for just three seasons but the show became so popular in syndication that two animated series and...

There are few faces that are more closely identified with classic television than that of the late Bob Denver. One of his characters is so recognizable that you just have to wear a white hat and a red shirt to be called "Gilligan."

Denver starred in not one but two hit television shows. In The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, he played Maynard G. Krebs, television's first beatnik. Opposite Dwayne Hickman's regular-guy Dobie Gillis, Denver is the ideal comic sidekick.

After four years of that, Denver segued to the starring role in Sherwood Schwartz's Gilligan's Island. Working with Alan Hale Jr. and the rest of the sitcom's cast, Denver displayed his talent for physical comedy and treating absurd situations with honesty.

Gilligan lasted for just three seasons but the show became so popular in syndication that two animated series and three reunion movies followed. Denver and the other...

Bob Denver, the resilient comic actor who became a TV legend portraying wacky first mate Gilligan on the sitcom Gilligan's Island, died last Friday; he was 70. Denver's agent confirmed the news on Tuesday, with Entertainment Tonight first reporting the death. The actor, who had undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery previously this year, passed away at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina, surrounded by his wife and four children. Denver first appeared to TV audiences as the hip beatnik Maynard G. Krebs in the '60s sitcom The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis, playing second banana to lead Dwayne Hickman. Though the show ran for four years and made Denver a television star, it was his second big role that made him a TV icon: that of Gilligan on the zany sitcom Gilligan's Island. The TV show, created by Sherwood Schwartz and centering on seven mismatched castaways stranded on a desert island in the south Pacific, ran for only three years (1964-1967) and was derided by critics for its goofy humor, but its life in syndication proved endless. Audiences continually rediscovered the hijinks of the passengers of the SS Minnow, and its theme song ("Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale/a tale of a fateful trip.") became one of the most memorable ever written. The stars of the show - including Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer ("the Skipper too/a millionaire and his wife...") - reunited with Denver for three highly-rated TV movies; only co-star Tina Louise (the "movie star") opted out of the reunions. Unlike a number of sitcom stars, Denver was noted for being extremely generous and thoughtful to cast members, and reportedly fought for equal billing for Island co-stars Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells, aka "the Professor and Mary Ann," who in the show's first season were referred to as "the rest" in the opening credits. (Johnson, Wells, and Louise now remain the only surviving cast members.) Despite innumerable guest appearances of various sitcoms, the persona of Gilligan stayed with Denver throughout his life, as did that of Maynard G. Krebs (Denver appeared in a 1988 Dobie Gillis reunion TV movie), and the actor entitled his autobiography Gilligan, Maynard and Me. Denver is survived by his wife, Dreama, and children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin. --Prepared by IMDb staff...