Russell Johnson, Dave Madden, RIP

Russell Johnson--Professor Roy Hinkley from Gilligan's Island--has died at age 89. He was a bombardier on a B-24 during World War Two, shot down and injured in the Philippines on one mission. The main things I remember seeing him in, beside Gilligan's Island, were the movie MacArthur, an episode of The FBI where he played a son of a wealthy patriarch taking charge when a family member is kidnapped, and there were the old science fiction movies, This Island Earth and Attack of the Crab Monsters. He sacrifices himself to save the others in those movies.

But he has a long list of credits. I missed him in an uncredited appearance in Three Days of the Condor.

And Dave Madden has died at age 82. Perhaps best known as Ruben Kincaid on The Partridge Family. He was regarded as the nicest actor in Hollywood. According to the made-for-TV movie about the making of the Partridge Family, Madden became close with Danny Bonaduce, taking him home on weekends as the cast tried to protect him from his abusive father. He appeared on Laugh-In, was a regular on Alice, I remember seeing him on Married with Children.

Madden couldn't stand Marty Ingels, Shirley Jones' husband. Oddly, this keeps turning up in biographies of him for some reason. Ingels probably is a bit intense.