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Rise to Fame
Bob Denver didn't set out to be an actor. He was a mailman and then a schoolteacher when his sister arranged an audition for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1958. The beatnik sidekick he created, Maynard G. Krebs, was widely cited as the first beatnik on mainstream American television. CBS noticed the breakout and handed Denver the title role on Gilligan's Island in 1964, a show the network canceled after three seasons without realizing it was handing him a permanent identity.
In the Spotlight
Gilligan's Island lasted three seasons on CBS before the network dropped it in 1967, then ran in syndication nearly without interruption. By the mid-1970s, Denver said he realized Gilligan wasn't going away. Three reunion TV movies followed between 1978 and 1981. His reputation kept growing after the show ended, not because the work kept getting better, but because television kept putting Gilligan in front of new kids every afternoon. It's a particular kind of immortality, one you don't really get to choose.
Side Notes
Maynard G. Krebs, the beatnik Denver created for Dobie Gillis, turned out to have an unusually long cultural reach: the character is widely credited with inspiring Shaggy Rogers from Scooby-Doo. On Gilligan's Island, he used his position to push CBS to credit Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells in the opening theme, where they'd been listed as "and the rest," and demanded Wells receive equal publicity to Tina Louise. Two fights, both won.
Final Chapter
Denver died at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. He underwent a quadruple bypass following cancer surgery and spent his final days on a respirator, non-responsive. Russell Johnson said Denver had entertained generations. Dreama continued the Denver Foundation, co-founded with Bob in 1993, and later expanded it to include an honor flight program for West Virginia veterans.