Johnson played The Professor on "Gilligan's Island", a pretty bad show that lasted for three seasons in the 1960's, but one that has inexplicably achieved immortality in reruns. Johnson was a long time character actor who appeared in zillion movie and TV westerns, usually as a bad guy, and he once playing Ronald Reagan's younger brother in a movie. When tapped for what was to be a minor part in what would no doubt be a forgettable sitcom, who knew that Johnson would be ticketed for television immortality? I liked the line in the obit that said that Johnson, when making personal appearances over the years at nostalgia shows, said that he played a guy who was "smart enough to make a short wave radio out of coconut shells, but too dumb to fix a two foot hole in a boat".
Madden, as the picture above indicates, played Reuben Kincaid, the ever frustrated manager of the Partridge Family. I can also recall that Madden was one of the regular cast members of Rowen and Martin's Laugh-In.
Johnson was 89, Madden was 82.
RIP Professor and Reuben.
No comments:
Post a Comment