Gilligan's Island Star Russell Johnson Spent His Retirement Just Like The Professor

Many fans of the show have noticed that Professor Roy Hinkley (Russell Johnson) was the only reason anyone could survive on "Gilligan's Island." Not only was he able to keep a cool head in extreme situations, but he was also the only one with any kind of engineering knowhow. He was able to repair radios, examine mysterious chemicals that washed up on shore, and it was likely he who constructed the island's aqueduct system. While Mr. and Mrs. Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer) were lying around drinking mai tais and Gilligan (Bob Denver) was bumbling through life, the Professor was getting s*** done on "Gilligan's Island." The fact that he never became angry on confrontational speaks largely to the character's maturity and command largesse.

The original "Gilligan's Island" series didn't have proper closure, but some late-stage TV movie follow-ups did explore what happened to the castaways later in life. In the 1978 film "Rescue from Gilligan's Island," the castaways did manage — at long last — to return to the mainland. They found, however, that they were all unhappy. The Professor had become a celebrity, a status he never asked for; he would have preferred to return to a lab to do research. By the end of "Rescue," the castaways were, by bleak happenstance, deposited on the same island as before, equally stranded.

In the next movie, though, the rescue was finally permanent. In 1979's "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island," the army finally managed to map the location of the island and rescue the castaways once and for all. In a very "Myth of Sisyphus" twist, however, the castaways all found they liked living on a tropical island and decided to move back intentionally, opening a beach resort. Fittingly, the resort was called "The Castaways." They made their rock their thing.

In a 1997 interview with the Toronto Star, Johnson revealed that the end of "The Castaways" was fitting for his real life, in which he, too, retired to an island.

Note that Johnson retired not to a remote tropical island, but to Bainbridge Island, Washington, which is part of Puget Sound. Given the weather on Puget Sound, it's quite the opposite of a warm, tropical isle. Rather, it's likely rainy and cold most of the year. Bainbridge Island is located just west of Seattle, but is considered a suburb of the city. It's small enough that only one road, Highway 308, leads on and off of it across a bridge.

Johnson, who was 73 in 1997, admitted to the Toronto Star that despite a long and varied career, "Gilligan's Island," by a substantial margin, brought him the most fame. He was approached all the time by people who remembered him from the show and was astonished to learn that then-president Bill Clinton watched the series as a boy. Only occasionally did he regret the gig. Johnson also acknowledged the irony of moving to an island, given the fate of his character. "Old habits die hard," he quipped. In his autobiography "Here on Gilligan's Isle," Johnson also talked about his island home, writing:

"So here's the Professor and his wife living on an inhabited island in Puget Sound in a beautiful home surrounded by a wooded heaven, where deer come right up to our patio door. Above the mantel is a gift from Sherwood Schwartz: a masterfully matted and framed portrait in glorious color of the seven stranded castaways."

Schwartz was, of course, the creator and writer of "Gilligan's Island," one of TV's great impresarios.

Johnson passed away in 2014 at the age of 89. His memorial was announced in local Bainbridge newspapers. He may have been known for playing the Professor on "Gilligan's Island," but it also sounds like he was a good neighbor.