Robert Osbourne "Bob" Denver

 Robert Osbourne "Bob" Denver (January 9, 1935 – September 2, 2005)

While teaching Math and coaching P.E. at Corpus Christi School (Pasadena, CA) in 1958, Denver shot the pilot for the TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and left teaching for his first professional acting job as a regular on the series when it was picked up in 1959. From 1959 to 1963, Denver appeared on Dobie Gillis as Maynard G. Krebs, the teenaged beatnik best friend of Dobie Gillis, played by Dwayne Hickman. Denver's first feature film appearance was in the service farce, A Private's Affair, with Sal Mineo in 1959. 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. Soon after, 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. During the run, Denver privately went out of his way to help his co-stars who warmly appreciated his efforts, such as successfully demanding that Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells be included in the series' opening credits and insisting that Wells get an equal share of the show's publicity with Tina Louise.

In the 1970s, Denver continued to appear on television, including the made for TV Gilligan's Island reunion movies. Bob Denver died at age 70 in 2005 of complications from cancer, and was cremated.