Dawn Wells, who parlayed her girl-next-door charm and wholesome beauty into enduring TV fame as the sweet-natured desert island castaway Mary Ann on the classic 1960s sitcom Gilligan’s Island, died Wednesday at age 82, her publicist said.
Wells, who won the title of Miss Nevada in 1959 and competed in the Miss America contest, died from complications of COVID-19, publicist Harlan Boll said in a statement.
Born in the gambling city of Reno, Wells played Kansas farm girl Mary Ann Summers, one of seven castaways stranded after their boat, the S.S. Minnow, became battered in a storm during what was supposed to be a three-hour tour from Hawaii. Wells beat out actors including Raquel Welch for her role.
Gilligan’s Island ran for three seasons (1964-1967) with a cast that also included Bob Denver as the zany Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper, Jim Backus as millionaire Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer as his posh wife, Russell Johnson as the Professor and Tina Louise as movie star Ginger.The death of Wells leaves Louise, 86, the sole survivor of these cast members. FILE – In this 1965 file photo, Dawn Wells, center, poses with fellow cast members of “Gilligan’s Island,” Bob Denver and Alan Hale Jr., in Los Angeles.The 98 episodes invariably involved their efforts in vain to get off the island, even as a parade of guest stars dropped in and had no trouble getting out. The show drew the wrath of critics, but its innocent fun caught on with viewers at a time of tumult in America after the assassination of a president and during the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and the escalation of the Vietnam War. Wells, playing a cheerful brunette Midwestern farm girl, appeared in the series wearing short shorts, midriff tops and pigtails. Louise, playing a buxom red-haired sensation akin to Marilyn Monroe, wore slinky, form-fitting dresses. The two inspired what became an enduring pop culture question for men: “Ginger or Mary Ann?”
Wells said that question was the most common topic mentioned to her by fans. “Mostly they’ll pick a favorite, Ginger or Mary Ann. For some reason, they feel they have to make a choice,” Wells told Forbes magazine in 2016.
Wells had effusive praise for Denver and her other cast mates but was not especially close to Louise, who distanced herself from the Ginger character and declined to appear in various Gilligan’s Island reboots with her former co-stars.
“We had nothing against each other,” Wells told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. “We didn’t have much in common.”
Gilligan’s Island was canceled by network executives despite respectable ratings, then became ubiquitous in syndicated reruns.
“A misconception is that we must be wealthy, rolling in the dough, because we got residuals. We didn’t really get a dime,” Wells told Forbes.
Wells said she was paid $750 a week, adding, “Sherwood Schwartz, our producer, reportedly made $90 million on the reruns alone.”
Like some of her co-stars, she suffered from typecasting in Hollywood in the years after the series ended, appearing in TV guest spots and stage work before taking roles in B-movies.
FILE – This Oct. 2, 1978, photo shows the cast of “Gilligan’s Island,” from left, Russell Johnson, Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Alan Hale Jr., Bob Denver, Judith Baldwin replacing original cast member Tina Louise, and Dawn Wells.In light of the show’s steady popularity in the 1970s, three made-for-TV movies were made with progressively far-fetched plots involving Soviet satellites and visiting basketball players: Rescue from Gilligan’s Island (1978), The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island (1979) and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (1981).
Wells also lent her voice to the animated Gilligan’s Planet (1982) in which the castaways become stranded on a faraway planet.
Wells also capitalized on her fame by writing, Mary Ann’s Gilligan’s Island Cookbook, and later, for the 50th anniversary of the series in 2014, the book, What Would Mary Ann Do? A Guide to Life.
Wells was born Oct. 18, 1938, in Reno, studied theater at the University of Washington, and headed to Hollywood after her beauty pageant success.
She embraced her pop culture status but said there was more to her than just being Mary Ann.
“I’m deeper, smarter, more ambitious, funnier. I think if you meet me for 15 minutes, there is nothing you won’t know: what you see is what you get,” she told Forbes.
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Day: December 30, 2020
Britain became the first country to approve the coronavirus vaccine developed jointly by Oxford University and AstraZeneca Wednesday. Scientists say the vaccine could be a game changer in the global fight against the pandemic. Regulators say the vaccine has shown around 70% effectiveness against COVID-19, a relatively high figure compared to vaccines for many other diseases. “This vaccine, COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca, has been approved for use in people aged 18 years and older, with two standard doses, four to 12 weeks apart,” said Dr. June Raine, CEO of Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). “As I’ve said before, and I will say again today, the safety of the public always comes first. The MHRA’s approval has been reached following a thorough and scientifically rigorous review of all the evidence of safety, of quality and of effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca,” Raine added, during a press conference Wednesday in London. Earlier in December, Britain was the first of several Western nations to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is around 95% effective. However, it is more expensive at around $20 per dose and must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius. In contrast, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine costs around $4 per dose and only needs to be stored at refrigerator temperatures. In an interview with VOA, Dr. Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at the University of Reading in Britain, said those attributes make the drug particularly suitable for less well-funded health systems. “Developing countries with a less sophisticated cold chain and with smaller budgets will be able to use this vaccine,” Clarke said. Research into the optimum dosing regimen for the AstraZeneca vaccine is ongoing. Britain plans to administer the first dose to as many people as possible, rather than focusing only on elderly and vulnerable groups. A second dose will follow up to 12 weeks later for longer-term protection. Wei Shen Lim, chair of Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, explained the decision. “What is impressive about the vaccine studies is that after the first dose, individuals acquire a high level of protection shortly after the dose. Currently in the U.K., we know that COVID infection rates are very, very high. The immediate urgency is for rapid and high levels of vaccine uptake,” he told the press conference Wednesday. Clarke said questions remain on the British government’s approach. “There is government pressure to increase the coverage of vaccination. And that’s understandable,” he said. “People want it done as quickly as possible. But if you end up putting more people in [the] hospital because they’re vulnerable and they didn’t get the regimen of the vaccine, then that means that our hospitals are still going to be under pressure.” Matt Hancock, Britain’s health secretary, said the approval was a cause for great optimism. “I’m confident … that the NHS will be able to deliver these shots into people’s arms at the speed at which it can be manufactured,” he told Sky News. “And I’m also now, with this approval this morning, highly confident that we can get enough vulnerable people vaccinated by the spring, that we can now see our route out of this pandemic.” The road to recovery will be difficult. Britain is struggling with a surge of infections driven by a new variant of the coronavirus that doctors say is over 50% more infectious. There are record numbers of hospitalizations, with patients being treated in ambulances as hospital beds are running short. “Control room staff are having to make incredibly difficult decisions to decide who gets an ambulance and in what order, quite often with huge numbers of people waiting for ambulances,” said Will Broughton, a trustee at Britain’s College of Paramedics. “And they have nobody left to send.” Several cases of the new mutant virus have been found in other countries. Scientists say its spread makes the global rollout of vaccines even more urgent.
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Born deaf into a silent world, Nancy Rourke turned long ago to painting to convey her innermost feelings. So, when the 63-year-old artist contracted COVID-19, she responded with a series of striking images intended to alert others to the dangers of the disease. Rourke tested positive on November 13. Her case was more severe than many others because she also has autoimmune disease. She had fatigue, chills, cough, congestion, sore throat, loss of taste and smell, body aches, severe headaches, dizziness, diarrhea, loss of appetite and shortness of breath. Deaf artist Nancy Rourke contracted COVID-19 in November and is currently on the road to recovery. (Courtesy photo)”Your chest gets so tight, and it hurts, and you’re wondering why is it so hard to breathe,” she said. “It’s so labor-intensive and the coughing — I never stopped coughing every single day. Now, finally I have some relief. But I still cough.” Rourke, who spoke to VOA by phone through an interpreter using a telecommunications relay service, said she also suffered confusion, nightmares and weight loss. Anxious to warn others who seemed not to be taking the pandemic seriously, the Colorado-based artist began producing paintings and drawings based on her experience with the disease and sharing them on social media. Nancy Rourke shared a series of drawings she did on social media to raise awareness about the dangers of COVID-19. The drawings depict all the symptoms she had when infected. (Courtesy photo)One of the drawings shows a chopped hand — a scene from a scary nightmare that Rourke had while sick. Another drawing shows a figure with a question mark on the nose or mouth, which represents her loss of taste and smell for two weeks. Rourke, the only deaf person in her family, said she struggled as a child to explain her feelings even to her closest relatives. It was during her high school years that she found an outlet for her emotions in art. “My identity of being a deaf person — I was frustrated, and I was trying to describe to my parents and to my teacher about my experiences. And they kind of didn’t get it. And so, words weren’t explaining my frustrations well enough, so I just started drawing,” she said. Deaf artist Nancy Rourke’s painting “Eighteen Signs” hangs on display at the Deaf Action Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. (Courtesy photo)That early beginning led to a 20-year career as a graphic designer for major corporations, including 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) and Microsoft. But in 2009, she decided to make a shift. After receiving a grant from a Philadelphia-based foundation, Rourke found herself able to focus full time on deaf art, which is based on deaf history, culture and the deaf experience. Even before getting sick, Rourke said, she found the coronavirus pandemic presented challenges for her as a deaf person. For example, some people trying to communicate with her would take off their face masks and expect her to read their lips. When Rourke asked them to keep their masks on and write their messages, they seemed to get irritated. “Expressions are really important, and I can read microexpressions,” she said. Rourke and many others in the deaf community also found it upsetting that for a long time, the White House did not provide an American Sign Language interpreter for public briefings on COVID-19 — or anything else. “The White House needs an interpreter,” she said. “There’s no access to communication, and we can’t understand what’s going on, especially when it comes to coronavirus when it was such a big deal.” Nancy Rourke painted a piece to express the frustration of the deaf community at the White House for not having ASL interpreters at COVID-19 briefings in the past. (Courtesy photo)She created an oil painting depicting the frustration felt by the deaf community at the time. The piece shows a group of “screaming hands” in different colors with the White House in the background. The hands symbolize deaf protesters begging for ASL access. As a result of lobbying efforts from the National Association of the Deaf, a federal judge ruled in September that the White House has to provide interpreters for deaf people during COVID-19 press briefings. Every year in February, Rourke undertakes a 28-day art challenge, during which she makes art the whole month. This time, she is planning a project with themes related to 2020, including her COVID-19 journey. Deaf artist Nancy Rourke is in the beginning stages of a project, which will debut in February and will include themes of 2020, including her experiences with COVID-19. (Courtesy photo)The centerpiece will be a wooden construction modeled on a 28-day Advent calendar. It will have 28 doors, with each door opening to illustrate an incident from the past year. Rourke now believes her illness in November was her second infection. She said she suffered a milder form of the common symptoms after returning home from a business trip to New Jersey in March but did not get tested at the time.
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Britain approved another vaccine for the coronavirus Wednesday, this one developed by Oxford University and the pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, scientists say the vaccine could be a game changer in the global fight against the pandemic.Camera: Henry Ridgwell Produced by: Henry Hernandez
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During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from1992 to 1995, tens of thousands of refugees came to the United States. In this story narrated by Anna Rice, Dino Jahic reports they brought some unique culinary traditions to the US
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The year 2020 is ending with good news about two more potential vaccines that could slowly bring an end to the global COVID-19 pandemic that has killed nearly 1.8 million people out of a total of nearly 82 million infections. Britain’s medical regulatory agency announced Wednesday that it has granted emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine developed jointly by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Late-stage clinical trials of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine revealed it to be 70% effective against COVID-19. The vaccine had a 62% efficacy rate for participants given a full two doses, but tests of a smaller sub-group revealed it to be 90% effective when given a half-dose followed by a full dose weeks later. The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is the second to be approved by Britain for its mass inoculation effort, which began earlier this month with the vaccine developed by U.S.-based Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. The new vaccine will be distributed across the country within days, with Britain having already ordered 100 million doses. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which needs to be stored in super-cold refrigerators at temperatures below 70 degrees Celsius, the newly approved vaccine can be stored at normal temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, making it easier to transport and administer to people in poorer and remote nations. But the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has come under intense scrutiny over the number of people who took part in the smaller sub-group, which was just 2,741, and whether it is effective for people over age 55. In a related development, Chinese state-owned drug maker Sinopharm is seeking regulatory approval for its COVID-19 vaccine after it was found to be 79.3 percent effective against the disease in a final large-scale clinical trial. The vaccine, developed by Sinopharm’s subsidiary Beijing Biological Products Institute, is one of five vaccines developed by Chinese companies that have already been administered to more than one million people in China under its emergency use program while still undergoing Phase 3 clinical trials. The United Arab Emirates granted emergency use approval for a Sinopharm-developed vaccine earlier this month after it was shown to be 86% effective in preventing moderate and severe cases of the virus in a late-stage clinical trial back in September. Wednesday’s vaccine news comes just days after several European Union countries began inoculating its citizens after receiving a first shipment of 10,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Vaccinations also began Wednesday in Singapore, with a 46-year-old nurse the first in the city-state to be inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The nurse is one of more than 30 staffers at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases to receive the first dose of two-shot vaccine, with the second dose to be delivered sometime in January. Singapore, which has one of the lowest rates of total infections with just 58,569, including 29 deaths, is the first Asian nation to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It expects to have enough vaccine doses for all its 5.7 million people by the third quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, another potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S.-based drug maker Novavax has begun final-stage testing in the United States. The trials involving 30,000 volunteers will focus on high-risk older adults, as well as people from Black and Hispanic communities who have been disproportionately affected by the virus.
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