What Happened To Alan Hale Jr. After Gilligan’s Island

Alan Hale, Jr. became a performer as part of his family’s legacy. His mother was actress Gretchen Hartman who appeared in dozens of films in the 1910s, while his father, Alan Hale (real name: Rufus Edward MacKahan) racked up hundreds of credits in the silent era, typically as a reliable sidekick to Errol Flynn. Hartman retired from acting in 1929, and Hale, Sr. continued to work until his death in 1950. Alan Hale, Jr. first appeared on the screen as an infant, “starring” opposite his mother. Hale made his Broadway debut in 1931, when he was only 10, appearing in a very, very short-lived show called “Caught Wet” (it opened and closed in the same month). In 1933, Hale played uncredited role in William Wellman’s Depression-era drama “Wild Boys of the Road,” and it may be the first movie a casual observer would recognize him in. 

Staring in 1941, Hale began his acting career in earnest, racking up six credits just that year. Hale served in the Coast Guard from 1942 to 1945, but he still managed to expand his performance résumé, and immediately turned back to acting in 1947 when the war was over. He was in a few dozen more movies in the late 40s before landing his first TV gig, playing various roles in episodes of “The Gene Autry Show” in 1950. His first regular TV gig came in 1952 when he was cast as the title character “Bill Barker, U.S.A.,” and he landed another lead role in the 1957 series “Casey Jones.” There was never a time when Hale wasn’t working. 

It wouldn’t be until 1964, after hundreds of roles, that Hale would be cast as the Skipper in “Gilligan’s Island,” the hit sitcom about seven castaways stranded on a desert island. To this day, it remains Hale’s highest-profile gig. 

After “Gilligan’s Island” was canceled in 1967, Hale merely continued to work. Although many might only recognize him as the Skipper, he refused to be typecast, and became a TV staple for several more decades.

Several of Hale’s “Gilligan’s Island” co-stars were both blessed and cursed by the success of the series. It’s worth remembering that “Gilligan’s,” while widely watched, was critically lambasted, with some finding the series to be the prime example of the dumbing down of television. Bob Denver and Dawn Wells notoriously had trouble finding work after 1967 as they were too strongly associated with their parts. 

Hale, likely because he was already a decades-deep showbiz veteran, understood that a job is a job, and never stopped auditioning for whatever roles came his way. In 1967, he turned up on “Batman,” playfully playing a character named Gilligan. Indeed, from 1967 to 1969, he appeared in the TV versions of “Hondo,” in the Western “Hang ‘Em High,” and in episodes of “Daktari,” “Green Acres,” “The Flying Nun,” “The Wild Wild West,” “The Good Guys,” “Here Comes the Bride,” “The Virginian,” and “Land of the Giants.” It pays to be an easygoing character actor who is willing to put in the work. Think of a popular TV series of the 1970s or 1980s, and it’s possible Hale was on it. 

He was in “Ironside,” “Gunsmoke,” “Magnum P.I.,” “Murder She Wrote,” “The Love Boat,” “Growing Pains,” and “Simon & Simon.” That’s in between all the TV movies, Afterschool Specials, and feature films. 

Indeed, Hale would continue to accumulate multiple TV and film credits every year until 1985, the only year he seems to have taken off. Here’s some fun trivia: Alan Hale played the Musketeer Porthos in both the 1952 film “At Sword’s Point,” and then again in the unrelated 1979 film “The Fifth Musketeer.”

Hale also wasn’t above returning to play the Skipper when the franchise needed him. Hale returned for all the “Gilligan’s Island” spin-offs, including the animated shows “The New Adventures of Gilligan” and the bonkers “Gilligan’s Planet.” He was in the TV movies “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island,” “The Castaways of Gilligan’s Island” and “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” in 1978, 1979, and 1981 respectively. Hale also returned to play the Skipper in a 1987 episode of “ALF” wherein the title alien imagines himself to be on Gilligan’s Island. 

Hale also rolled with his reputation as the Skipper in various other projects. As mentioned, he played a character named Gilligan in “Batman,” but he also played ship’s captains and other Skipper-like roles in other projects. He played Captain Hale in a 1987 episode of “The New Gidget” (and if you remember “The New Gidget,” I’m sorry you didn’t have friends in high school). He also appeared in the 1987 Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello throwback “Back to the Beach,” playing a character only credited as “Bartender’s buddy.” The bartender was played by Bob Denver, Gilligan himself, in that film. 

Hale’s final credit came in 1989, when he appeared in the low-budget horror movie “Terror Night,” playing opposite Cameron Mitchell. The film was co-directed by the venerable André De Toth in his final directorial effort. By then, however, Hale was very sick with thymus cancer. The story goes that Hale received his diagnosis, but didn’t tell anyone, not even his wife. It wasn’t until he appeared at a “Gilligan’s Island” reunion convention that his old co-stars noticed he was ill. 

Hale died in 1990. He was 68. He was cremated, and his ashes were sprinkled in the Pacific Ocean. A captain until the end.