The actress best known for her role on the classic CBS sitcom 'Gilligan's Island' has passed away at the age of 82 in Los Angeles due to coronavirus complications.
- Dec 31, 2020
AceShowbiz - Beloved TV star Dawn Wells has become the latest celebrity victim of Covid-19.
The "Gilligan's Island" pin-up died on Wednesday morning (30Dec20) in Los Angeles from complications due to the coronavirus.
She was 82.
A former beauty queen, Wells launched her acting career with a series of TV roles in the early 1960s and beat out hundreds of actresses to land the part of Mary Ann Summers in "Gilligan's Island" in 1964.
Her credits also include the TV shows "Fantasy Island", "Love Boat", and "Growing Pains", and she reprised her role as the voice of Mary Ann in "Gilligan's Planet" in 1982.
She voiced her final role, as Gumbalina Toothington, in "Captain Underpants" and the "Ghastly Danger of the Ghost Dentist" last year (19).
In a 2008 interview, the actress lamented the lack of characters similar to Mary Ann on screen, "There hasn't been a Mary Ann on the air for I don't know how long."
She added, "There hasn't been a good girl over 14, and Mary Ann was very much that. The Mary Ann-Ginger issue is always there. You had to be a real man to understand Ginger, and Mary Ann would've gone to the prom with you and been your best friend. A lot of guys would come up to me and say I married a Mary Ann. She had the values."
Wells is survived by her stepsister, Weslee Wells. The actress married talent agent Larry Rosen in 1962 but the couple got divorced in 1967. They had no children together.
