For an actor in the 1960s, landing a permanent role in a new TV series was a big deal. But little did actor Russell Johnson know, when he took that role in 1963, that it would become his identity for the rest of his life.
Johnson was cast as Roy Hinckley, better known as The Professor on the brand new TV series “Gilligan’s Island.”
And over its three-year run, the almost-cartoon-like series about seven people stranded on a desert island after a shipwreck became a cultural phenomenon. Even more so when the show went into syndication after its network run. It’s still in reruns today, 60 years later.
And even though he went on to many television and movie roles after “Gilligan’s Island” Russell Johnson is still known primarily as The Professor.
By 1993, he had fully embraced the idea that that was going to be his identity. And that was the year he wrote a light-hearted memoir about the show, called Here On Gilligan’s Isle.
I had lots and lots of questions for him when we met one day that summer to talk about the book.
So here now, from 1993, Russell Johnson.
Russell Johnson died in 2014. He was 89.
