| Tina Louise  AKA Tina Blacker
Born: 11-Feb-1934
Birthplace: New York City
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor, Model Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Ginger on Gilligan's Island Tina Louise worked as a model, nightclub singer, and stage actress in the 1950s, and had several minor credits on Broadway. She studied drama at the Actors Studio, under Lee Strasberg. For several years in the early 1960s, she lived and worked in Italy, where her statuesque good looks and exotic American persona led to work in several Italian films.
In her most famous role, she played a movie star on TV's Gilligan's Island, and she has said that she was basically mimicking Marilyn Monroe. In real life, Louise had acted only in forgettable low-budget efforts like Day of the Outlaw with Robert Ryan and Armored Command with Howard Keel. Tina has said she was "tricked" into doing Gilligan's Island -- that she was told she would be the star, and the program would revolve around the amusing antics of a Hollywood star stranded on a desert island with a few other oddball characters. The program's title would seem to debunk her story, along with the fact that Bob Denver, playing Gilligan, was already a TV star, and Louise was not.
In the late 1960s, she was married to San Francisco talk show host Les Crane. Shortly after their divorce, he achieved national fame when his spoken word recording of Max Ehrmann's poem "Desiderata" became a hippie anthem.
Louise does not go placidly when reporters want to query her about Gilligan's Island. "They'll just make up stories about me," she says, "like they have in the past. Bob Denver is always saying things about me that aren't true." In a late-1990s interview, she said that she no longer includes Gilligan's Island on her résumé. In 2000, during the first season of the reality show Survivor, CBS asked Louise and other survivors from Gilligan's Island to appear on The Early Show, to promote Survivor by offering their expert opinions (as former castaways) about the game. Until then, Louise had not seen Survivor, but after viewing an episode, she told CBS, "There is no way I'm getting up at five in the morning to get my hair done and then do a live morning talk show at six about this stupid show."
Her recent film credits include the quirky Welcome to Woop Woop (set in Australia's equivalent of a backwoods) with Rod Taylor and West From North Goes South with Larry Linville and Phyllis Diller.
Boyfriend: Bo Belinsky (MLB pitcher, dated in 1960s)
Husband: Les Crane (talk show host, m. 1966, div. 1970, one daughter)
Daughter: Caprice Crane (writer, former MTV executive)
University: Miami University of Ohio (attended)
TELEVISION
All My Children Tish Pridmore (1994)
Dallas Julie Grey (1978-79)
Gilligan's Island Ginger Grant (1964-66)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Late Phases (9-Mar-2014)
Welcome to Woop Woop (13-May-1997)
Johnny Suede (Aug-1991) · Mrs. Fontaine
O.C. and Stiggs (10-Jul-1987) · Florence Beaugereaux
Evils of the Night (1985)
Dog Day (11-Jan-1984)
Mean Dog Blues (14-Jul-1978)
SST: Death Flight (25-Feb-1977)
Nightmare in Badham County (5-Nov-1976)
Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (29-Oct-1976)
Death Scream (26-Sep-1975)
The Stepford Wives (12-Feb-1975)
The Happy Ending (21-Dec-1969) · Helen Bricker
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (3-Nov-1969)
How To Commit Marriage (7-Jul-1969) · Laverne Baker
The Wrecking Crew (17-Jan-1969)
For Those Who Think Young (Jun-1964) · Topaz McQueen
Fanfare for a Death Scene (1964)
Armored Command (9-Jul-1961)
The Warrior Empress (24-Aug-1960)
The Siege of Syracuse (17-Mar-1960)
Day of the Outlaw (Jul-1959)
The Hangman (5-Mar-1959)
The Trap (28-Jan-1959) · Linda Anderson
God's Little Acre (13-Aug-1958) · Griselda
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