Gilligan and skipper8/13/2023 Offscreen, Denver and Hale were also close friends and mutual admirers. Schwartz had envisioned them as a modern take on comedy legends Laurel and Hardy, and for his part, Hale gave an admirable turn as Hardy, right down to his signature slow burn. The relationship between Gilligan and the Skipper appeared at times antagonistic - big laughs were generated by the Skipper taking a swipe at Gilligan with his hat - but in reality, the pair were like father and son. Minnow and second lead on "Gilligan's Island." As the Skipper, Hale's role was to maintain a semblance of order and buoy the spirits of his fellow castaways while enlisting his bumbling first mate, Gilligan (Bob Denver), in rescue attempts. After auditioning and passing on several actors, including Carroll O'Connor, he spied Hale at a Hollywood restaurant and decided that he had found his Jonas Grumby, captain of the doomed S.S. In 1964, producer Sherwood Schwartz was looking for an actor to play the skipper of a marooned pleasure cruise in a new sitcom he was creating for CBS. Though Westerns were his stock and trade for most of the 1950s and early 1960s, Hale appeared in nearly every genre, from comedies like "The Andy Griffith Show" (CBS, 1960-68), where his lovelorn farmer, Jeff Pruitt, took a liking to Barney Fife's sweetheart, Thelma Lou, to dramas and action series like "Adventures in Paradise" (ABC, 1959-1962) and "Route 66" (CBS, 1960-64). From 1957 to 1958, he played the legendary railroad engineer "Casey Jones" (CBS, 1958) before segueing to a variety of roles on the Desilu-produced Western "The Texan" (CBS, 1958-1960) with Rory Calhoun. Hale also enjoyed the occasional lead, though mostly on television, where he was top-billed as "Biff Baker, U.S.A." (CBS, 1952-53), a two-fisted import businessman who found himself up to his neck each week in international intrigue. Now frequently billed as Alan Hale after the death of his father at the dawn of the decade, he began filling many of the roles the elder Hale had played or would play in features, including Alexandre Dumas' Musketeer Porthos in "At Sword's Point" (1952) and "Lady in the Iron Mask" (1952), and support to such major stars as Kirk Douglas in "The Big Trees" (1952), Gary Cooper in "Springfield Rifle" (1953) and Robert Taylor in "Rogue Cop" (1954). Hale segued smoothly into television at the dawn of the 1950s, and essayed a variety of sidekicks and henchmen for such cowboy shows as "Range Rider" (syndicated, 1951-52) and "The Gene Autry Show" (CBS, 1950-56), where he frequently played Gene's right hand man, Tiny. He even netted a lead or two, most notably in "Sarge Goes to College" (1947), a lightweight school drama in which his WWII hero is sent to recuperate at a university and becomes involved in collegiate hijinks. He was largely a background player for most of his early roles, but by the late 1940s, he was a staple of military dramas and Westerns. Blessed with the same powerful build as his father, but with a broad, childlike smile and boisterous laugh, Hale was well cast as physical men - soldiers, college football players, cowboys - whose easygoing nature offered a counterpoint to the stoicism of their leading men. began his acting career as an infant during the silent period, but his first recorded appearance was at the age of 10 in the Broadway play "Caught Wet," for which he was credited as "Allan Hale." Two years later, he landed his first screen role in a sound film with an uncredited turn in "Wild Boys of the Road" (1933). on Main Los Angeles, he was the lookalike son of Alan Hale, Sr., the prolific character actor who co-starred with the likes of Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn, and silent film actress Gretchen Hartman. He continued to play overgrown teddy bears of one stripe or another until his death in 1990, which was mourned by two generations of TV kids who had grown up on that tropical island with Hale.īorn Alan Hale Mackahan, Jr. When the iconic series came to an end, Hale had no ill will towards those who typecast him as the Skipper, as the role had extended his career another two decades. The son of actor Alan Hale, he was best used as imposing tough guys or folksy, easily amused sidekicks both of these qualities were put to use as the Skipper, who could be counted on as the castaways' strong man, while at the same time, fluster apoplectically over Gilligan's shenanigans. appeared in nearly every genre imaginable, but was largely remembered as the genial Skipper on "Gilligan's Island" (CBS, 1964-67). A prolific character actor in film and on television for over four decades, Alan Hale, Jr.
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