I'm afraid I don't have the perfect Dawn Wells story to post here. I thought she was wonderful on Gilligan's Island, a series I followed more for the cast than the stories. They were all just fun people to watch, especially Jim Backus. I was twelve when the series went on and that's a good age to watch Gilligan's Island and to appreciate the two cute ladies on it. It's chic to say you favored Mary Ann over Ginger but the truth is that at twelve, both were starting to look real good to me. Since I was never going to have to choose between them for mating reasons, why choose at all?
My one encounter with Ms. Wells came when I was voice-casting a cartoon series. The network and studio were insisting I audition on tape, a large quantity of actors. Usually, the way it works is that I bring in three or four actors for each part, read them all, pick the one I want and then the network and studio okays my selections and we hire the person I picked. This time, I had to bring in ten for each lesser role and twenty for the main ones. Then I picked the ones I wanted, the network and studio okayed my selections and we hired the exact same actors we would have hired if I'd only brought in three or four per role.
So I spent a lot of time calling agents and asking each of them to send in several of their clients, mostly of my choice but you let each agent suggest a few you don't know. One agent insisted I read Dawn Wells for one of the smaller parts. I thought she was wrong for the role in question but sometimes, you get surprised. And I did have to audition ten actresses…
…so Dawn Wells came in. This was 1993 and she was 55 years old but if I hadn't known when Gilligan was on, I would have guessed 35. I was also instantly struck by a certain Star Quality. She had a beautiful smiling face, a charming manner and a certain aura of "special" about her. The word "radiant" comes to mind. At that moment, when it still didn't matter, I'd have picked Mary Ann over Ginger or almost anyone else.
As I'm sure I've written here, it's good form when you meet a movie or TV star to not ask them about the one credit that everyone asks them about, the one that makes them feel you think that's all they've ever done. That's especially true if it's a long-ago credit. When I met Robert Morse, I did not ask him about How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, when I met Ray Walston, I didn't bring up My Favorite Martian, etc. So I quickly racked my memory for something Dawn Wells had done besides Gilligan's Island…
…and I couldn't come up with anything. Looking now at her IMDB listing, I still can't come up with anything apart from some one-shot guest spots here and there. But I made the best of it and she gave a fine, professional reading that I'm afraid just wasn't what we wanted for the character. It wasn't that she wasn't good. Her agent had just sent her in for something she wasn't right for.
That happens all the time in show business. In fact, it happens a lot more often than they come in and they're perfect for the role. I had the feeling it happened way too often for Dawn Wells. I'm sure she was still terrific at playing Mary Ann parts but there aren't that many of them, plus she was too old to play them anymore, at least on camera.
You feel sorry for someone trapped in that situation. I do, anyway. But then I remember how many actors and wanna-be actors would sell their soul to be on even a three-season TV series that was rerun and rerun and rerun and rerun and rerun, ad infinitum. And while I'm sure her residuals ran out long ago and weren't that huge to begin with, she was well-known and loved by so many generations. Just look at the Internet yesterday and today and probably for the next few days. Everyone adored Mary Ann. You can work your whole life in the acting profession and not achieve that kind of loving immortality.