While I was ill.....2 of my favorite television stars died......Both on January 16th. First.....The actor who played The Professor on Gilligans Island, Russell Johnson, has died. His agent, Mike Eisenstadt, told CBS News that Johnson died Thursday morning at his home in Washington State of natural causes. He was 89. Johnson was a busy but little-known character actor, who had made guest appearances on shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, when he was cast in the slapstick 1960s comedy about seven people marooned on an uncharted Pacific island. His character, high school science teacher Roy Hinkley, built generators and other gadgets out of scraps of junk found on the island. Johnson later joked that the one thing The Professor never figured out how to do was to fix the leaky boat so the group could get back to civilization. Eariler in life, he joined the Army Air Corps during World War II and served as a B-24 bombardier on missions over the Pacific war zone, breaking his ankles in 1945 when his plane was shot down over the Philippine island of Mindanao. He was discharged as a first lieutenant in November 1945, having earned a Purple Heart and other medals. He died from Kidney Failure.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 16:25:49 +0000
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