50 Years Later: Where Is The Cast Of Gilligan’s Island Today?

When Ginger embarked on the boat tour that would leave her stranded with the others, all she had been thinking about was relaxing in the warm, tropical waters. Though it wasn’t easy on her psyche, she managed to make the best of her time on the island, often becoming the person who boosted the others’ morale when they needed a boost. Turns out, they really needed Ginger’s good spirits while they were lost.

Since the completion of Gilligan’s Island, we haven’t seen very much from Tina Louise, making her limited appearances even more unforgettable. For two decades, however, Louise was in some of the most popular TV shows of the era, including The Love Boat, CHiPs, Dallas, and Love, American Style. Recently, Tina Louise has come back out of the woodwork in a feature film called Tapestry. Starring alongside her were the actors Stephen Baldwin and Burt Young.

In a time when it was much easier to go off the grid, hiding away on a touring boat seemed like a great idea to the criminal Jackson Farrell. After a number of West Coast bank robberies, Farrell had managed to elude the police by hopping over to Hawaii. The other castaways were convinced by his story that he was a doctor, at least at first. Once they figured out his secret, however, he tried to imprison the others.

Larry Storch may not have been the biggest mainstay while he was working on Gilligan’s Island, but his appearance was certainly memorable. Even for those who didn’t associate Storch with his work on the show, he was such a well-known character actor from other TV and film projects, that audiences were sure to recognize him. While he was a voiceover regular for The Pink Panther Show and Scooby-Doo in his prime, the now-retired actor’s last appearance was in Medium Rare in 2010.

When you’re stranded on a desert island, it’s easy to assume that the little stretch of land is empty except for your group, so when a  young Kurt Russell popped up in the jungle, Gilligan and the others were surprised, to say the least. The show never detailed where he came from or how he got there, but there was a brief period where it seemed like Jungle Boy would be the key to their escape.

Kurt Russell’s career has spanned the better part of his life, beginning as a small-time TV star before he moved up in the ranks to become a bonafide A-lister. Since playing Jungle Boy on Gilligan’s Island, Russell has been a constant presence in a variety of Hollywood projects. His most recent roles include the hits Guardians of the Galaxy 2, The Hateful Eight, and the action film, The Fate of the Furious. Still, Russell shows no sign of slowing down.

Much like Jungle Boy, Gilligan would find at the end of the series that there was a native population living on the island that had managed to steer clear of the castaways. Gilligan found himself in a bind after he saved the woman from drowning, only to have an ex of hers turn up and challenge Gilligan to a fight. Ugundi fully expected to defeat Gilligan, but somehow, Gilligan prevailed.

Michael Forest may have only appeared in one episode of Gilligan’s Island, but that doesn’t mean his career suffered for it. For many years, Forest was a regular voice actor when it came to putting together the soundtrack to popular video games, making his voice even more recognizable than his appearance. In recent years, he provided English dubbing for the film Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution 1 in addition to making a cameo as himself in Unbelievable!!!!!

Prisoners on the lam weren’t the only troublesome personalities the castaways encountered during their time on the island. Norbert Wiley through the group for a loop when he washed ashore in season three and immediately managed to capture the company. With a wealthy man like Thurston Howell III around, Wiley figured he’d be able to earn a good ransom. Instead, he found that the castaways turned the tables, making Wiley the prisoner.

Don Rickles may be considered a legend these days, but in the early 1960s, he was still relatively unknown when he made his guest appearance in Gilligan’s Island. It had only been a few years before that Rickles had gotten his big break. However, less than a decade later, he became a veritable star with Kelly’s Heroes. Younger audiences, however, are more likely to recognize Rickles as the voice of Mr. Potato Head from the Toy Story series.

With a smile always dancing on her face, Mary Ann Summers was the castaway who managed to keep the group together during their time on the island. It was Summers who kept up with the daily chores on the island, whether she was cleaning, or especially cooking. Without her, everyone recognized just how useless they would have been when it came to working with the resources available to them. For that reason, everyone loved Mary Ann.

Working on Gilligan’s Island gave Dawn Wells’ career a big jump start, as she found herself busy with acting roles throughout the 1960s. However, time marched through the next three decades, roles became more sparse for Dawn, though she did make several appearances on Roseanne and ALF. The last few years haven’t been easy on Dawn’s wallet, which resulted in a fan-run GoFundMe page to help with her bills. Even so, she’s still promoting reruns of Gilligan’s Island.

There was a brief moment in time when the heiress Erika Tiffany-Smith seemed like she would become the castaways’ savior. In her quest to build a new resort, she stumbled upon the deserted island, however, she would make a vital error when it came to saving the group that had been stranded. Instead of giving the US Navy the island’s coordinates, she ended up leaving the group behind, with no way to be found.

Zsa Zsa Gabor might not have been famous for her acting career, but she certainly had no trouble keeping her name in the headlines. If it wasn’t her nine marriages, it was something else, though she complemented her socialite status with continuous acting jobs. Throughout her long career, Gabor had the opportunity to appear on hit sit-coms like The Facts of Life, Batman, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She passed away shortly before turning 100.

While The Professor wasn’t really a professor, being a high school science teacher was more than enough for the other castaways. With a deep knowledge of plants, The Professor always seemed to be the most likely candidate for figuring out how to get home. However, he seemed to have a significant blind spot when ti came to ship repair, despite being able to build tools out of almost any material he’d found.

When Russell Johnson was cast on Gilligan’s Island, it seemed like a dream come true – until he continued to be typecast in roles that were in the same vein as The Professor. Even with that little hitch, Johnson was determined to build a successful acting career. In later decades, Johnson managed to land several recurring roles, which included series like Dynasty, Beyond Westworld, and The Jeffersons. In 2014, Johnson died after struggling with kidney disease.

With a name like Thurston Howell III, there was no mistaking him s a country bumpkin. Despite his massive wealth, there was nothing Thurston’s money could do to get the castaways off of the island. Being stranded in the middle of the ocean forced Thurston to grapple with the realization that he had always counted on money to solve his problems. When it came to the rest of the group, however, Thurston still had status.

Much like a number of his fellow cast members, Jim Backus wasn’t just a talented actor, he was a well-regarded voiceover artist who gave life to a number of our favorite animated characters. While many didn’t put two and two together, Backus’s best-known voiceover character was likely that of Mr. Magoo, which he played on both film and television. Backus returned for the Gilligan spin-offs and features, making Thurston one of his final roles before his 1989 death.

Lovey Howell, Thurston’s partner, was just as reliant on her wealth as her husband, until being stranded on the island, however. While she certainly valued her material possessions, she managed to show that she was adaptable, against all odds. She may have been tied to her high society life, but she also managed to spice thing up on the island as a frequent source of comedy. Somehow, Lovey managed to combine her old life with her new circumstances.

Spouting a natural elegance, it’s no wonder Natalie Schafer was chosen for the role of Lovey Howell. In fact, even before beginning her work on Gilligan’s Island Schafer had played many similar roles. The finale of Gilligan’s Island wouldn’t be the last we saw of Natalie Schafer as Lovey Howell, as she returned for all of her spin-offs and TV movies that ensued over the following decades. A year before she passed away in 1991, Schafer made a final film appearance in I’m Dangerous Tonight.

Better known to the audiences as skipper, Jonas Grumpy was the lost ship’s captain before they were stranded on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific. As determined as Grumby was to bring the ship and its passengers to safety, it was a quest he didn’t manage to accomplish. Nevertheless, Skipper knew when he needed to take control even on the island in order to help everyone survive.

Playing Skipper wasn’t necessarily the easiest role, no matter how effortless Alan Hale Jr. made it look. Born into a film family, Hale was primed for a successful acting career from an early age, which he only proved further with the number of prestige credits he had on his resume. After Gilligan, Hale would make guest appearances in everything from Growing Pains to Magnum P.I. After a long, successful career, Hale passed away in 1990.

As the title character of the show, it might have been surprising that Gilligan was far from in control while on the island. He may have been given a lot of responsibility while working on the ship, but all bets were off once the ship was stranded. Gilligan often boasted a child-like innocence with both aided in his playfulness but could also make him somewhat of a liability. Either way, the other castaways couldn’t help but love him.

Long before making his debut as Gilligan, Bob Denver had risen to fame in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which put him in the spotlight for the first time. After Gilligan’s conclusion, Denver moved on to star in series like The Good Guys and Dusty’s Trail. Long before he retired in 1997, Denver’s career was already beginning to take a back seat after so many years in the spotlight. In 2005, Denver passed away from pneumonia.