BOB DENVER Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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BOB DENVER

Name: Robert Osbourne Denver                                                         
Born: 9 January 1935 New Rochelle, New York, USA                                     
Died: 2 September 2005 Winston-Salem, North Carolina                                 
                                                                                     
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 took on the role of         
Maynard G. Krebs, a beatnik on the 1959-1963 TV series The Many Loves of Dobie       
Gillis. This character had a strong resemblance to the character of Gilligan he       
would later play.                                                                     
                                                                                     
Denver was born in New Rochelle, New York, and reared 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.             
                                                                                     
He costarred with Dwayne Hickman on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1959.           
Denver played the role of Maynard G. Krebs, while Hickman played Dobie Gills.         
Hickman was also a Loyola graduate. Also in the series was Steven Franken, who       
played the dilettante playboy Chatsworth Osborne, Jr.                                 
                                                                                     
Credited as "Robert Denver," he landed a small role in the 1963 Jimmy Stewart         
film, Take Her, She's Mine, playing a beatnik poet working at a coffee shop           
named "The Sleeping Pill." Denver appeared in the 1964 beach movie For Those Who     
Think Young with Tina Louise prior to the development of Gilligan's Island.           
                                                                                     
Though remembered primarily as a comic actor, Denver 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 role of Gilligan on Gilligan's     
Island.                                                                               
                                                                                     
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. Although appreciated by Bob Denver fans, none of       
these shows 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 drug and related paraphernalia in Denver's home. He pleaded no     
contest and received six months probation.                                           
                                                                                     
Later on in his life, Denver returned to his adopted home of Princeton, West         
Virginia. He became an FM radio personality. Along with his wife Dreama, they         
ran a small "oldies format" station, WGAG-LP. He also earned a small income           
making public appearances, often costumed as Gilligan.                               
                                                                                     
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 at Wake Forest University Baptist           
Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of 70, surrounded by his         
family — his last wife (of 28 years), the former Dreama Peery; and his children     
of 4 different marriages; Patrick, Megan, Emily, and Colin.