The Only Major Actors Still Alive From The Love Boat
"The Love Boat" holds a fascinating place in pop culture history. While most of the shows with reruns playing in heavy rotation today were in some way groundbreaking upon their initial release, "The Love Boat" is a novelty the likes of which modern TV rarely – if ever – tries to emulate. An anthology-like rom-com set aboard a cruise ship, "The Love Boat" featured a revolving door of guest stars and little connective tissue to speak of aside from the cast playing the crew aboard the ship.
The deeply '70s series earned high ratings for much of its run, yet was considered pretty silly even at the time of its release. John J. O'Connor called it a "dreadful porridge of a conception" in The New York Times, while the Orlando Sentinel's Noel Holston said it needed "sharper writing, better casting, more original situations, an end to the indefatigable laugh track or, barring those changes, an enormous tidal wave." Still, the show kept on cruising for nine seasons. It ended its final voyage in 1986, though more TV specials would follow over the next four years. Some cast mates would go on to continue building rewarding careers in Hollywood, while others would retire from acting and pursue surprising alternate endeavors.
Bernie Kopell (Adam Doc Bricker)
The actor who played Dr. Adam "Doc" Bricker on "The Love Boat" was a TV mainstay in the '60s and '70s, appearing in shows like "Get Smart," "That Girl," and "Bewitched" before taking on one of the main roles in the sunny cruise-set series in 1977. The actor continued working on screen after the show ended, embracing his familiarity as Doc by often appearing in comedic guest star spots that made reference to his most iconic character. Variations on Doc appeared in everything from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" to "The Last Sharknado: It's About Time!"
Kopell hasn't just spent the past few decades paying homage to "The Love Boat," though. One of his best comedic roles to date is totally unrelated; in "Arrested Development," Kopell pops up as a combination maritime court judge and crab shack employee called Judge Kornzucker, who sentences Lucille (Jessica Walter) to prison. He also had multi-episode arcs on shows including the '90s soap "Sunset Beach" and the Chuck Lorre sitcom "B Positive," which ended in 2022. Kopell still acts and most recently appeared in episodes of "The Lincoln Lawyer" and "Grey's Anatomy." He also made a cameo in 2008's "Get Smart" movie.
Off-screen, Kopell has also played starring roles on stage, including in the recent off-Broadway production "Two Jews, Talking." According to a 2010 interview with the New York Theatre Guide, the actor is also into tennis and has won several celebrity tournaments.
Ted Lange (Isaac Washington)
As the bartender on the Pacific Princess, Ted Lange's "Love Boat" character may have only been known for one thing, but the actor himself is clearly a jack-of-all-trades. Since the series ended, he's filled his time by acting, directing, screenwriting, producing, writing plays, hosting a game show, starting a production company, appearing on a reality show, and even at one point penning a sex advice column alongside adult film star Jenna Jameson.
Lange's most interesting artistic detour to date might be his prolific playwriting career. As of 2022, the actor told Closer (via Yahoo) he had penned 26 plays and counting. "I try to educate audiences on the history of America and of the Black experience in America," Lange told the outlet. In an interview with Fox411, he described the plot of a play he wrote about the life of real-life spy Mary Bowser, explaining, "I do a lot of historical research on my plays and then I take it from a Black point of view, and put it on the stage."
The actor began writing and directing while working on "The Love Boat," and has since directed episodes of shows like "Moesha," "Eve," and "Dharma & Greg." He's also directed several TV movies. Lange studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts ("Love Boat" guest star Lynn Redgrave advised him to try it) and directed and starred in an indie film version of "Othello" in 1989, although his screen credits are typically a lot more eclectic. His film credits include sex comedies like "Terminal Exposure" and "Dorm Daze 2," and he most recently appeared in the faith-based horror movie "Blood Pageant." Lange also told Closer he and "Love Boat" co-star Fred Grandy created a production company with a mission to make theater more accessible, called Five For the Show.
Fred Grandy (Burl Gopher Smith)
After playing ship purser Gopher for nine seasons of "The Love Boat," Fred Grandy left the acting business for nearly 20 years. He's cited a fiery car accident that happened in Turkey during filming as the reason for his exit from Hollywood. According to a 1994 LA Times profile, a lit cigarette in a taxi caused a hydrogen balloon to blow up on Grandy. As he later told Radio Iowa, "The car exploded [...] The flames shot six feet in the air and I was profoundly burning on my face and hands and it was that kind of flirtation with mortality that got me thinking of what I wanted to do with my life."
What Grandy wanted to do was get into politics. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Iowa and served in the role from 1987 to 1995. Grandy, a Republican, then entered the governor's race in 1993 and lost. Since then, Grandy has continued to work in politics, first in conservative talk radio and later as a member of the far-right think tank The Center For Security Policy. Though Grandy isn't currently listed on the site's staff and fellow directory, site articles from 2011 and 2012 called him a "Senior Fellow" and the "Executive Vice President," respectively.
Grandy has also served as President and CEO of Goodwill Industries (yes, that Goodwill), and has worked as a stage actor. He began appearing on TV and in film again in 2003, with multi-episode stints in shows like "The Mindy Project" and "Knight Squad." In 2011, Grandy left his radio show after he and his wife allegedly made anti-Islamic comments. At the time, Grandy insisted he was pressured to tone down his comments, while radio station WMAL said the actor-turned-politician resigned on his own (per DCist).
Lauren Tewes (Julie McCoy)
For seven seasons of "The Love Boat," Lauren Tewes played Julie McCoy, the cruise director whom guests on board often attempted to woo. Tewes left the series prematurely in an exit that's been attributed to substance abuse issues (she had a cocaine addiction at the time, but got sober in 1984 according to the LA Times), salary disagreements, and personality clashes. As a 1998 profile for Deseret News put it, "After the hit series, she wasn't even typecast. She just wasn't offered jobs. Period."
Tewes didn't give up acting, but instead threw herself into regional theater work as both an actor and director. In 1990, she mounted a West Hollywood production of the strange and violent medical comedy "The Head," a play that raised ethical questions that, according to LAT, reminded the actor of her premature daughter who was born and passed away in 1987. Among other roles, Tewes played Calamity Jane in "Morning Glories," starred in a Seattle production of "Side Man," and has acted in radio plays from Imagination Theatre.
According to MeTV, Tewes also went to culinary school to become a cheese specialist, and has appeared in Princess Cruises commercials spoofing "The Love Boat." Her on-screen roles since "The Love Boat" include appearances in the '90s movies "Nowhere" and "The Doom Generation" and TV roles in 2000's "The Fugitive" and David Lynch's "Twin Peaks: The Return."
Jill Whelan (Vicki Stubing)
Another "Love Boat" star whose career eventually moved beyond film and TV work, Jill Whelan can currently be heard on the talk show podcast "The Brian and Jill Show" alongside radio personality Brian Phelps. Whelan joined "The Love Boat" in season 2 as Vicki, the daughter of Captain Merrill Stubing (the late Gavin MacLeod). Since then she's acted on screen in guest spots on "Criminal Minds" and "The Bold and the Beautiful," among other projects, but her career has been far more wide-ranging than a typical actor's.
Whelan has worked as both an event producer and investigative producer and helped bring events like "The ESPY Awards" and "MTV's Birthday Tribute to Bob Dylan" to life, per The Sun Times News. In an interview with the OC Register, she said she worked at a Philadelphia AM radio station before realizing she "wasn't passionate enough about politics" to continue there. Instead, she says, "I opened an improv comedy school for kids and for adults in Philly and also produced a one-woman show in New York." Her 2008 cabaret show was titled "Jill Whelan: An Evening in Dry Dock."
The "Love Boat" alum has also continued collaborating with her co-stars from the series. According to The Sun Times News, she's currently appearing in a regional production of the Tony-winning play "I'm Not Rappaport" alongside Grandy and Lange. She also serves as a "Celebration Ambassador" for Princess Cruises and hosted a "Love Boat"-themed cruise in 2022. The cruise featured every one of the actors from this list and was themed as a tribute to Whelan's TV dad, MacLeod.