'Gilligan's Island' actor Denver dies at age 70

Bob Denver, who played Gilligan in 'Gilligan's Island', has died aged 70. File picture / Reuters

LOS ANGELES - 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.

Denver, 70, also known as beatnik Maynard G. Krebs in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," died last Friday at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre 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 cancelled 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.


- REUTERS