When you think of a TV icon of this magnitude, your first reaction shouldn't be to womp him over the head with your hat, but this "Little Buddy" made that almost a signature move as the frustratingly clumsy Gilligan on Gilligan's Island (1964-1967). The beloved Bob Denver was born in New Rochelle, New York in 1935 and after moving out to the coast to attend college at Loyola in Los Angeles, he got bit by the acting bug. He tried to join the army, but a broken neck held him out of the service, so he jumped right into acting and was almost an immediate success. His first big role was as Krebs, the friend of famous 1950s horndog Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963). While he was shooting that series, he became a regular on plenty of shows that were filmed on the same LA soundstages like Dr. Kildare, The Andy Griffith Show, and I Dream of Jeannie. He also dipped his toes into some feature films of the times like A Private's Affair (1959), Take Her, She's Mine (1963), and where he comes our way, the 60's surf romp For Those Who Think Young (1964). You actually get to see a bit of the sexy side of Bob Denver here, where he shirtlessly talks about tantric sex on the beach and feeds a young Nancy Sinatra lollipops while she's in a bikini on her knees! It's weird to think that at 29 years old, he was a sun-kissed sexy bearded guy with lean muscles on the beach, but he was! Bob continued to dip back into the defining role of Gilligan for the rest of his career up until he died at the age of 70 in 2005 from complications from cancer, but this little buddy will definitely be missed and lives on forever now!
