RIP Roy Hinkley

[Chasing Ghosts]

We lost another Smile from the past today....

Actor Russell Johnson, who became known to generations of TV fans as "The Professor," the fix-it man who kept his fellow "Gilligan's Island" castaways supplied with gadgets, has died. He was 89.

The Castaways have lost the brains of the operation.

[crappiewisdom]

The Professor could build all of kinds of things out of stuff he found on the island....so why couldn't he just fix the hole in the S.S. Minnow??????

[M R Dux]

Sad. I honestly never knew what his given name was on the show. He was just Professor to me.

[Watertooner]

Over the decades, I've often had the show's theme song as an earworm in my brain, "the movie star, the professor and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan's isle!" These three folks were the last surviving members of the cast...until now. I guess I'll have to bumble through my earworms now, "the movie star, ...bumble...bumble... and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan's isle!"

[deathb4disco]

Sad. I honestly never knew what his given name was on the show. He was just Professor to me.

They mentioned his name on the very first episode. They also mentioned Mary Ann's last name (Summers), and the Skipper's name (Jonas Grumby.) None were ever mentioned again. Gilligan's full name was never mentioned. When questioned about it, producer Sherwood Schwartz said it was "Willie Gilligan". (I'm a big Gilligan trivia geek.)

RIP Professor!