Nancy McCarthy

Last updated
Nancy McCarthy
Born
Nancy McCarthy

(1937-06-08) June 8, 1937 (age 87)

Nancy McCarthy (born June 8, 1937 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American actress perhaps best known for her role as Bunny in the original 1963 pilot (unaired until 1992) for Gilligan's Island .

Contents

Career

After the Gilligan's Island pilot was made, series creator Sherwood Schwartz, after many network problems, decided to make changes, including dropping McCarthy's character. She also appeared in two other unaired TV pilots: Zelda with Sheila James and on The Peter Lorre Playhouse.

McCarthy made appearances on eight episodes of other television series, including My Three Sons , The Donna Reed Show , The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis , Adventures in Paradise , Lock Up , and Surfside 6 . [1]

McCarthy originally made her New York stage debut as Dixie Evans in The Big Knife at the Seven Arts Playhouse in 1959, which starred Carroll O'Connor and was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. [2] She appeared in several live television plays produced in New York, including True Story, Divorce Court, and Moment of Fear with Robert Redford on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. On stage in Los Angeles, she played Maggie in After the Fall.

Her regional credits include Flirt in Dark at the Top of the Stairs with Sylvia Sydney at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts, and Maisie in The Boy Friend at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

McCarthy retired from acting after suffering a back injury in 1972, but continued to work as a print and fashion model, and later, in the advertising and design field. Her final television credit is the pilot for Gilligan's Island, which finally aired on TBS on 16 October 1992, 29 years after it was filmed.

Personal life

Nancy Darlyne McCarthy grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in drama. She began her acting career by appearing in local theater and performing on a weekly radio play. While still a student in college, she auditioned for director Otto Preminger for the title role in his movie Saint Joan.

McCarthy married twice, first to a fellow actor, and later to a businessman to whom she is still married.

Related Research Articles

<i>Gilligans Island</i> American television series (1964–67)

Gilligan's Island is an American sitcom created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz. The show's ensemble cast features Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson, and Dawn Wells. It aired for three seasons on the CBS network from September 26, 1964, to April 17, 1967. The series follows the comic adventures of seven castaways as they try to survive on an island where they are shipwrecked. Most episodes revolve around the dissimilar castaways' conflicts and their unsuccessful attempts to escape their plight, with the ship's first mate, Gilligan, usually being responsible for the failures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Denver</span> American actor (1935–2005)

Robert Osbourne Denver was an American comedic actor who portrayed beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and Gilligan on the 1964–1967 television series Gilligan's Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rue McClanahan</span> American actress (1934–2010)

Eddi-Rue McClanahan was an American actress, comedienne, author and fashion designer. She was best known for her roles on television sitcoms, including Vivian Harmon on Maude (1972–78), Aunt Fran Crowley on Mama's Family (1983–84), and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls (1985–92), and its spin-off series The Golden Palace (1992–93).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tina Louise</span> American actress (born 1934)

Tina Louise is an American actress widely known for her role as movie star Ginger Grant in the television situation comedy Gilligan's Island. Louise is the last surviving cast member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Schafer</span> American actress (1900–1991)

Natalie Schafer was an American actress, best known today for her role as Lovey Howell on the sitcom Gilligan's Island (1964–1967).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Johnson</span> American actor (1924-2014)

Russell David Johnson was an American actor. He played Professor Roy Hinkley in Gilligan's Island and Marshal Gib Scott in Black Saddle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Marchand</span> American actress (1928–2000)

Nancy Lou Marchand was an American actress. She began her career in theater in 1951. She was most famous for her television portrayals of Margaret Pynchon on Lou Grant – for which she won four Emmy Awards – and Livia Soprano on The Sopranos, for which she won a Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanna Pettet</span> English and Canadian actress (born 1942)

Joanna Pettet is a British-born Canadian former actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Benz</span> American actress (born 1972)

Julie Benz is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (1997–2004), and as Rita Bennett on Dexter (2006–2010), for which she won the 2006 Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress and the 2009 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Andrea Anders is an American actress. She is best known for her work on television, notably through her main roles on five anticipated but short-lived sitcoms, Joey, The Class, Better Off Ted, Mr. Sunshine and Mr. Mom, as well as recurring and guest roles on numerous TV series including Cruel Summer, Oz, Young Sheldon, Modern Family,Necessary Roughness, Ted Lasso, and That '90s Show. Additionally, she has been cast in nearly ten produced but unsold pilots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamara Tunie</span> American actress

Tamara Tunie is an American film, stage, and television actress, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles as attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns and as medical examiner Melinda Warner in the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000–2021). Tunie also appeared in films such as Rising Sun (1993), The Devil's Advocate (1997), The Caveman's Valentine (2001) receiving Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female nomination, Flight (2012), and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Considine</span> American actor and sportswriter (1940–2022)

Timothy Daniel Considine was an American actor, writer, photographer, and automotive historian. He was best known for his acting roles in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Wayne</span> American actor

Patrick John Morrison, better known by his stage name Patrick Wayne, is an American actor. He is the second son of movie star John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. He made over 40 films, including eleven with his father.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sada Thompson</span> American actress (1927–2011)

Sada Carolyn Thompson was an American stage, film, and television actress. Though best known to television audiences as Kate Lawrence in Family (1976–1980), for which she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1978, Thompson originally won acclaim as a theater actress on Broadway winning a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Twigs in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline McWilliams</span> American actress (1945–2010)

Caroline Margaret McWilliams was an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Marcy Hill in the television series Benson. McWilliams had also appeared in nine episodes of its parent-series Soap, as Sally. She was a regular on the CBS soap Guiding Light for several years and appeared in a short-term role on the NBC soap Another World. She also had a recurring role on Beverly Hills, 90210 playing the mother of Jamie Walters' character, Ray Pruit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Randall</span> American actress (1935–1984)

Marion Burnside Randall, who acted under the name Sue Randall, was an American television actress whose entire seventeen-year career was spent in episodes of TV series, and one film (1957). Her best known role was the kindly Miss Alice Landers, Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver's elementary school teacher in the CBS and ABC sitcom Leave It to Beaver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nobu McCarthy</span> Canadian actress (1934–2002)

Nobu McCarthy was a Canadian actress. She received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in the film The Wash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cindy Robbins</span> American actress

Cynthia Chenault is an American television actress and producer/writer active from the mid-1950s to the present. She used the screen name Cindy Robbins in her acting credits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Walters</span> American actress (1933–2009)

Nancy Walters was an American model, actress and minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazel Shermet</span> American actress

Hazel Shermet was an American actress, comedian, and singer whose decades-long career spanned radio, television, film and theater, including Broadway. In addition to her live action-roles, Shermet also enjoyed a lengthy career as a voice-over and voice actor. She provided the voice of Henrietta Hippo for the entire 196-episode run of the syndicated children's show, New Zoo Revue, from 1972 until 1977.

References

  1. IMDB List of appearances
  2. Playbill/The Big Knife/NYC/1959