In Memory of 'Gilligan's Island' Actor Russell Johnson: 10 Years After His Tragic Death

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It's been years since the tragic death of beloved actor Russell Johnson, best known for his performance as the Professor on TV's Gilligan's Island. Johnson died of natural causes at 89 years old. This is his story.

A Closer Look

Russell Johnson’s acting career commenced a decade before he was cast as the Professor on Gilligan's Island, which originally aired on CBS from 1964 to 1967.

Johnson's earliest roles were in Westerns and science fiction films like It Came From Outer Space, This Island Earth, and Attack of the Crab Monsters.

Johnson kept busy in television through the late 1950s and early 1960s with, for one, a regular role on Black Saddle, and in two classic episodes of The Twilight Zone.

The Professor's Real Name

However, Russell Johnson simply could not shake the part of Roy Hinkley, the real name behind The Professor label on Gilligan’s Island.

Johnson’s straight, non-campy performance of the role added a measure...if only an ounce...of credibility to the high-concept premise of the show, which was this:

Seven individuals of various class distinctions and intellect take a 3-hour tour when a storm casts them away on an uncharted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. While there, they find themselves in all sorts of outlandish situations with lots of nice clothes and scientific gadgets (courtesy of Johnson's Professor)

Johnson enjoyed it all, right along with the rest of the show's cast, including leading man Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Dawn Wells, and Tina Louise (the sole surviving cast member).

Save for Louise, the cast later reunited in a series of popular TV-reunion-movies.

In Retrospect

Russell Johnson took it all with a grain of salt and a wink. He once even satirized the Professor on an episode of the 1980s TV sitcom Newhart, where he states about an interrupted Gilligan episode, "I want to see how it ends!"

For Gilligan's Island fans, it never ends...and the world is maybe just a little bit happier for it.