Gilligan's Island's Bob Denver Had A Terrifying Close Encounter With A Lion On Set
The Gordy subplot in Jordan Peele's "Nope" is distressing for many reasons, not least of which is that history is filled with incidents of real-life film and TV actors nearly meeting their maker at the hands — or paws — of a startled non-human costar (much like the leads of the fictional chimpanzee sitcom within Peele's movie, "Gordy's Home"). We're not as far removed from such real-world incidents as you might assume, either. During her "Hot Ones" episode in 2022, Leslie Mann recalled having to share a "little tiny space" with an actual lion on the "George of the Jungle" set 25 years earlier and realizing that "if he just jumps at me, I'm dead" and nobody could do a damn thing to save her.
30 years before that, it seems Bob Denver had a similar encounter with one of Simba's cousins on "Gilligan's Island." The show's second season episode "Feed the Kitty" (March 3, 1966) saw a shipwrecked lion wash up on the shores of the titular island, much to the consternation of its residents. Naturally, the bumbling Gilligan (Denver) nearly spelled his own doom by panicking and inadvertently locking himself in a hut with the big cat, only to befriend them after extracting a thorn from their paw. By the time Gilligan had begun training his newfound companion for a circus act, an uncredited Janos Prohaska — a Hungarian actor and stunt performer who made his living playing burly animals in American productions — had assumed the role of Gilligan's four-legged acquaintance to make life easier for everyone.
Before that, however, Denver had to act opposite an honest-to-goodness lion named Zamba. And, well, let's just say that Zamba didn't take kindly to Denver's antics as Gilligan.
'We almost lost Bob Denver in that episode'
As someone who lives with domestic cats, I can tell you this much: they don't appreciate loud noises or sudden movements. (Like big cats, they also love cardboard boxes, so prepare for your floors to be regularly littered with the suckers if you own some.) That being the case, it doesn't surprise me to learn that Zamba took issue with Denver's physical comedy on the set of "Gilligan's Island."
Appearing on "The Late Show" for a reunion special with the series cast in 1988, show creator Sherwood Schwartz recounted the tale of how, in his own words, "We almost lost Bob Denver in that episode." As Schwartz explained, the trouble started after Denver's Gilligan barricaded himself in a hut, unaware that the lion roar was coming from inside the house:
"[...] The only problem was, the lion was in the bed in the hut. So then, when he went to sit on the bed, he reaches back and begins to feel this furry something and takes a look and leaps off the bed. You cannot leap when there's a lion around. They don't like it. When you move quickly, lions don't like it. And he leaped for Bob. And except for the fact that the bed was not secured, it was movable, and the lion lost his purchase in that move and leaped for Bob and missed by about two, three feet. Or he'd have landed right on him. And I said, 'Bob, are you okay?' He says, 'Yeah, let's do it again!'"
If you watch the scene in question, you can readily spot the shadow of the lion's offscreen trainer, who was mercifully quick to step in and ensure Denver's safety. Nonetheless, I think we can all agree this is one area where CGI replacing a more practical approach has absolutely been for the better. (My apologies to those who were convinced Idris Elba fought a lion for real in "Beast.")