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‘Gilligan’s Island’ Star Dawn Wells Spoke Out on Why Tina Louise Was ‘Never a Part of the Company’

One Gilligan’s Island star spoke back in 2019 about how the actress who played Ginger, Tina Louise, was never completely bought into the show.

Tina Louise is without a doubt best known for her time on Gilligan’s Island. In the show, Louise played movie star, Ginger Grant. However, prior to becoming a star in Gilligan’s Island, she landed her breakthrough role in the 1958 drama film God’s Little Acre. She received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year for her performance.

However, fellow Gilligan’s Island co-star Dawn Wells once said that Louise wasn’t always fully invested in the show. Wells played Mary Ann Summers. She says the Ginger Grant actress truly thought she was a movie star and sometimes thought the show was all about her.

When the cast got back together for their first reunion movie, Rescue from Gilligan’s Island, everyone made it except Tina Louise. Her role of Ginger was replaced by Judith Baldwin. Wells said that although Grant was never difficult, she was never truly “part of the company.”

“Tina thought she was a movie star and I don’t think she realized what it was that there were seven of us,” Dawn Wells explained to Studio 10 in 2019. “She was never difficult. She was never part of the company, though.”

You can watch the entire interview with Wells below:

Wells said that she has even tried to contact Louise, but she doesn’t want to admit that she was part of the show.

“Even since then I have tried to kind of contact her,” Wells admits. “And she doesn’t even want to admit she was in it. And she was wonderful. I don’t think you could have cast anyone better.”

A ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Rivalry

Although Dawn Wells and Tina Louise always got along, there was always a little bit of a friendly rivalry between the two girls on set. Wells says the two were close friends but that in the end, men always preferred Marry Ann. Wells even had a t-shirt that said, “Ginger or Mary Ann, the ultimate dilemma.”

“You can go anywhere and say ‘Ginger or Mary Ann?’” Wells told the Vancouver Sun in 2014. “You don’t have to say what show it is. Everybody gets it. And I always win.”

However, we are sad to say that Dawn Wells died this past December from complications from the COVID-19 virus. The Gilligan’s Island star was 82 years old.