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Bob Denver was born on January 9, 1935
in New Rochelle, New York. He possibly had two brothers, Richard and
Gerard and one sister Helen [Richard and Helen are mentioned in his
autobiography – but Gerard is mentioned elsewhere by Denver].
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He graduated from Brownwood Senior High
School in 1953 (Brownwood, TX).
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While attending Layola-Marymount
University (Los Angeles), he decided he
may want to try his hand at acting. However, he also worked as a
mailman, an athletic coach and a math teacher [at the Corpus Christi
Children's School (Pacific Palisades, CA)] before focusing on acting
as a career.
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In 1956, he
had a physical setback when he broke his neck. Luckily, it kept him
out of the army.
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Bob Denver’s first big break came in
1959, when he landed the role of Maynard G. Krebs on the popular
television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He played
the bongo-playing, beatnik friend of Dobie Gillis for four years
until the show ended in 1964. He also made his film debut, although
very small, in A Private’s Affair. In 1963, he had his
second movie appearance playing another beatnik character in Take
Her, She’s Mine.
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In 1960, Denver married his first wife
Maggie Ryan. He had two children with Maggie and one stepson. They
were divorced in 1966. A daughter Megan and a son named Patrick
Denver (b. 1959) who is a visual effects artist and has worked on
many major movies.
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In 1964, he received the role that
millions would remember him by, the funny, naive and bumbling
Gilligan on the hit TV series Gilligan’s Island. [Trivia: the
role was first offered to Jerry Van Dyke, and the characters full
name is “Willy Gilligan”] The series lasted until 1967. Although the
show only broke the top twenty in the ratings only once in its three
seasons (98 episodes), it became a success story in syndication.
[Note: the show, nor any of its performers were ever nominated for
an Emmy during its three year run.]
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Bob Denver was married again in 1967,
this time to Jean Webber, however, the marriage only lasted three
years and they divorced in 1970 without having a child.
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After the end of Gilligan’s Island, he
tried to make it in Hollywood and appeared in a few more films
including Who’s Minding the Mint? In 1967 and then in 1968
both Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? and
The Sweet Ride.
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A career on the big screen did not seem
to be panning out, so back to comedy so back to the world of sitcoms
he wend and co-starred in the series The Good Guys for two
seasons from 1968-1970 as the cab driver Rufus Butterworth.
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After The Good Guys ended, he moved
onto the bright lights of Broadway and in 1970 replaced Woody Allen
in the lead role of Play it Again Sam. He then toured with
the show for a while afterwards.
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The reruns of Gilligan’s Island started
to make a hit on the public’s consciousness and in 1973 Denver next
starred in the TV series Dusty’s Trail, in which he plays an
old West version of a Gilligan like character. Being typecast, in
1975, he starred in Sid and Marty Krofft’s kids comedy series Far
Out Space Nuts, in which he plays a castaway lost in outer space.
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Being type cast as the clumsy castaway,
he made the best of it and provided voice-overs for two animated
series based on the television show, first, The New Adventures of
Gilligan from 1974 to 1976, then again in 1980 for Gilligan’s
Planet.
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Denver finally found true love and
married Dreama Perry in 1976. They had a son, Colin. [Note: I have
found references on the web that he may have possibly had a third
wife or a relationship that led to a child – possibly a Carole
Abrams which led to a daughter named Emily Denver (b. 1972)].
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The reruns of Gilligan’s Island were
playing all over the country and it’s popularity hit new heights in
the late 1980s. To cash in on this newfound interest, a made-for-TV
movie was produced in 1978 called Rescue From Gilligan’s Island.
This did so well in the ratings that two more movies for television
were made, The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island in 1978 and The Harlem
Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island in 1981.
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In 1989, the first of the Minnow’s crew
began to pass away, with the death of Mrs.
Eunice Wentworth “Lovey” Howell (Natalie Shcafer), the
Skipper [Jonas Grumby] (Alan Hale Jr.) in 1990, then Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus) in 1991.
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Denver published an autobiography in
1993 entitled Gilligan, Maynard & Me in which he talked about
his life the people he has known, and his two signature roles.
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Although Gilligan’s Island has
become a cultural icon over time, it still has never received the
acclaim of other pop culture shows of the sixties and seventies.
In fact, when asked during a 1994 interview if the Smithsonian has
asked for his hat for their museum, he made a comment that they
would never do something as low as ask for it. (i.e., the show was
never deemed worthy enough by “the establishment” to be on the same
level as an All In The Family or MASH.
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Denver made a big buzz in 1998 when he
was arrested for the possession of Marijuana and received six months
probation. In that year he also tried to revive his Maynard Krebs
character in the made for TV special Bring Me the Head of Dobie
Gillis. [Ed note: any connection?]
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Denver launched an oldies station from
the basement of his own home in April 2004 called “Little Buddy
Radio.”
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He criticized the reality show based on
Gilligan’s Island in a West Virginia newspaper (Bluefield Daily)
and told the Bluefield Daily that he thought the premise of the show
would not work.
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In May of 2005, Bob Denver was rushed
to the hospital and a quadruple bypass surgery was performed on his
heart.
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This remarkable and funny man passed
away on September 2, 2005 from complications due to cancer in a
hospital room at the Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in
North Carolina. The family of Bob Denver asks that fans do not send
flowers and gifts, but instead to donate to Bob’s charity, The
Denver Foundation whose purpose is to help handicapped people in his
home state of West Virginia. You can make donations to The Denver
Foundation, Inc., PO Box 931, Princeton, WV 24740. The remaining
members of the original castaways are the Professor Roy Hinkley
(Russell Johnson), Mary Ann Summers (Dawn Wells) and Ginger Grant
(Tina Louise).