Biography
Early life
Denver was born in New Rochelle, New York, and raised in Brownwood, Texas. He graduated from Loyola University (predecessor to today's Loyola Marymount University) in Los Angeles, California. After attending the Sylvia Herpolscheimer Academy for Performance Arts , he first found work as a mailman. He later coached physical education and taught mathematics at Corpus Christi School, a Roman Catholic elementary school in Pacific Palisades, California.
Television and film career
Denver's first film appearance was in the service farce A Private's Affair with Sal Mineo. He co-starred with Dwayne Hickman on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1959, playing Maynard G. Krebs. While he was on Dobie Gillis, Denver also appeared on the NBC interview program Here's Hollywood. He also had a one-time role replacing the actor who played Dudley A. "Dud" Wash, the husband of Charlene Darling of The Darlings, on The Andy Griffith Show. The episode was aired March 30, 1964. This was done by the network to promote Denver's face and make him more familiar to the viewing audience since Gilligan's Island was about to go on air. He only appeared in one episode.
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. He was credited as Robert Denver. Denver also appeared in the 1964 beach film For Those Who Think Young with Tina Louise prior to the development of Gilligan's Island. He also appeared in the 1967 comedy film Who's Minding the Mint?.
He is remembered primarily as a comic actor, yet Denver also 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 Believe the Truth …", also featured Barbara Eden and Ken Berry.
After Dobie Gillis ended in 1963, Denver landed the title role on the sitcom Gilligan's Island, which ran for three seasons (1964-67) on CBS, and became a staple of later syndication. His role as the well-meaning, but bumbling, first mate among a small cast of shipwrecked castaways became the one for which he is most remembered.
Later career
After the conclusion of Gilligan's Island, Denver 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 as "Junior" in the Sid & Marty Krofft children's program Far Out Space Nuts (1975). In 1976, The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West was a feature movie compiled of several episodes from Dusty's Trail. A decade after CBS left the castaways in limbo, he returned to the role of Gilligan – along with many of his former co-star castaways – lending his voice to the animated The New Adventures of Gilligan series and its sequel Gilligan's Planet. He also played four separate guest roles on Fantasy Island, on ABC from 1978 to 1980. In 1983, he starred in the television pilot, The Invisible Woman, as the bumbling mad scientist father of the title character, a journalist.
Later in his life, Denver returned to his adopted home of Princeton, West Virginia, and became an FM radio personality. He and his wife, Dreama, ran a small “oldies format” radio station. He also earned a small income making public appearances, often costumed as Gilligan. During the 1980s, he re-created the character of Gilligan for numerous cameo appearances, including episodes of ALF, Meego, and Baywatch, as well as a bartender in the 1987 film Back to the Beach. In 1992, he again played Gilligan to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation for a West Virginia fundraiser for the organization.
Legal issues
In 1998, Denver was arrested for having a box of marijuana delivered to his home. He originally said that the box had come from Dawn Wells who played Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island, but he later refused to name her in court and testified that "some crazy fan must have sent it." The police reportedly found more of the plant and related paraphernalia in Denver's home. He pleaded no contest and received six months probation.
Death
Denver died Friday, September 2, 2005 at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, told The Associated Press. Reports of his death once again began trending on Twitter and Facebook in September 2012.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
