September 06, 2005

Bob Denver of 'Gilligan' Fame Dies at 70

LOS ANGELES - Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy first mate Gilligan on the 1960s television show "Gilligan's Island," made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died, his agent confirmed Tuesday. He was 70.

Denver died Friday 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. Denver's death was first reported by "Entertainment Tonight."

Denver had also undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery earlier this year.

Denver's wife, Dreama, and his children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin were with him when he died.

"Bob is the finest human being I have ever known," Dreama Denver said in a statement released by Eisenstadt. "He was my everything and I will love him forever."

Denver's signature role was "Gilligan," the inept first mate of the tour boat the Minnow, whose bumbling got a group of tourists marooned on an uncharted desert island for three seasons in the 1960s and several movies for decades afterward.

But when he took the role in 1964 he was already known to TV audiences for another iconic character, that of Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which aired from 1959 to 1963.
 
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