Obituaries

Actor Russell Johnson, 89, best remembered for his role as "the professor" in the 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island, has died of kidney failure. He lived in Washington state for many years.

Johnson played many other roles in his life, but because there is a cult following surrounding this piece of dreck, he's best remembered for being in it.

Johnson was married three times and widowed once.

I didn't know this:

His acting career began in the early 1950s with many jobs as a character actor on television. He played Marshal Gib Scott in two seasons of "Black Saddle," a Western that ran in 1959 and 1960.

The last surviving cast members of Gilligan's Island are Tina Louise ("Ginger") and Dawn Wells ("Mary Ann").
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The last surviving female Munchkin in 1939's The Wizard of Oz has died at the age of 95:

Ruth Robinson Duccini, one of the last members of the troupe of diminutive actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 film classic "The Wizard of Oz," died Thursday after a brief illness at a hospice in Las Vegas, said her son, Fred Duccini. She was 95.

The last surviving Munchkin is actor Jerry Maren, 93.
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Actor Dave Madden, 82, best remembered for his role as band manager in the sitcom The Partridge Family, of congestive heart and kidney failure.
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