Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Russell Johnson

Actor

Born - 9 November 1924, Ashley, Pennsylvania, USA
Died - 16 January 2014

Stocky, tow-haired supporting actor with fresh, full features. A Purple Heart airman in World War Two, he used his GI compensation money when invalided out to enrol in acting lessons, and had stage and film experience by his mid twenties. Universal-International signed him in 1952 and he worked solidly for the studio for five years without quite making the front rank there. Later starred in 42 episodes of the TV western series Black Saddle and won TV fame as The Professor in the long-running Gilligan's Island comedy show. After a film debut in For Men Only/The Tall Lie (1951), he appeared in Loan Shark (1952), Rancho Notorious (1952), Law and Order (1953), It Came from Outer Space (1953), Ride Clear of Diablo (1954), This Island Earth (1955), God is in the Streets (1956), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), Rock All Night (1957), The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958), then a huge amount of TV until Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964), A Distant Trumpet (1964), Cry for Poor Wally (1969), Three Days of the Condor (1975), MacArthur the Rebel General (1977), the Great Skycopter Rescue (1980), Off the Wall (1983) and Blue Movies (1988), his last, although he continued appearing on TV until the late 1990s. He married actresses Kay Cousins (she died in 1980) and Constance Dane (who survives him).