Actress Dawn Wells, the former beauty queen who became America’s sweetheart playing the sweet castaway Mary Ann on the TV series “Gilligan’s Island,” has died. She was 82.
Wells died Wednesday of complications from COVID-19, her publicist Harlan Boll said in a statement to Th
Alongside Ginger Grant, the late performer's Mary Ann Summers left a mark in the collective pop consciousness that long outlasted "Gilligan's Island" itself.
“Every character on Gilligan’s Island was given a broad ‘stock’ comedy role to fill captain, mate, wealthy man, wealthy wife, professor, movie star except me,” she wrote. “She was given a name and location Kansas farm girl. I had to fill in the blanks. So, from the get-go, the Mary Ann character was different. She wasn’t a Hollywood creation. She was molded by me, from me.”
Her former costar Johnson also gushed about her in the forward.
Dawn Wells in ‘Gilligan’s Island’. Mediapunch/Shutterstock
“We love Mary Ann because she is the future, the hope of our world,” he wrote. The youngest of the castaways, Mary Ann has her entire life in front of her. “Watching her unfailing good cheer, her optimism is never in question. We love her because we need her emotional support and her belief that all will turn out well … We love Mary Ann because of Dawn Wells.”
Gilligan s Island co-star Dawn Wells.
The 86-year-old actress, who played movie starlet Ginger Grant on the popular 1960s TV sitcom, revealed that she was shocked to hear that her longtime friend passed away at an assisted living facility in Los Angeles following complications from COVID-19. Wells, who played Kansas farm girl Mary Ann Summers on the classic comedy series, was 82 when she died. I m very sad, Louise told Dawn was a very wonderful person. I want people to remember her as someone who always had a smile on her face. Nothing is more important than family and she was family. She will always be remembered… She was a person full of joy, and shared her joy with everyone. Louise revealed that she got the bad news about Wells via a phone call from a friend in Hollywood.