Gilligan's Island Star Alan Hale Jr. Had 3 Different Gunsmoke Guest Roles

Alan Hale Jr. will always be remembered for portraying the Skipper on "Gilligan's Island." But over the course of his 50-plus-year career, he spent much more time in the Old West than he did on Gilligan's Isle. Hale Jr. had multiple roles in some of the best Western TV shows of all time. Name a popular Western series of the mid-20th Century, and chances are he appeared in it. "Rawhide," "Bonanza," "The Texan," "Maverick"; even the lesser-known Western shows welcomed the Skipper, such as when Hale Jr. appeared alongside screen legend Steve McQueen in "Wanted Dead or Alive." 

Of course, like so many character actors of his era, Hale Jr. stopped by Dodge City to pay a visit to James Arness' US Marshal Matt Dillon. But he didn't appear on "Gunsmoke" just once. Between 1961 and 1972, Hale Jr. played three different characters on the long-running CBS Western series. 

Hale Jr. debuted as Captain Jonas Grumby on "Gilligan's Island" in 1964. He'd been acting since the early 1940s, and between then and the debut of "Gilligan's Island," he'd worked with everyone from Gregory Peck to John Wayne. He'd also added Arness to his list of esteemed co-stars after having appeared on a 1961 episode of "Gunsmoke." The Western series began airing in September 1955 and, by 1961, was in its sixth season. At that point, it was still airing half-hour episodes, but that changed with Season 7, when the show expanded each installment to an hour. Just before that, however, Hale Jr. appeared in Season 6, Episode 30, "Minnie."

Alan Hale Jr.'s first appearance on "Gunsmoke" came in the 1961 episode "Minnie." He plays aggrieved buffalo hunter and abusive husband Jake Higgins, who rocks up in Dodge City in pursuit of his wife, Minnie Higgins (Virginia Gregg). Turns out Minnie has become smitten with the town physician, Galen "Doc" Adams (Milburn Stone). Understandably, Jake isn't too happy and intends on killing whoever it is that's stolen his beloved. Doc Adams is only saved by Minnie, who steps in to prevent her husband from shooting him down outside his practice.

Three years after Hale Jr.'s inaugural "Gunsmoke" appearance, "Gilligan's Island" debuted on CBS. It went on to share a significant connection to "Gunsmoke" throughout its three-season run. Both CBS series were shot at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Los Angeles, and as such, "Gilligan's Island" and "Gunsmoke" often shared sets and props. What's more, "Gunsmoke" was indirectly to blame for the demise of "Gilligan's Island" in 1967, because the latter was canceled only after CBS head William Paley ordered its reinstatement at the expense of the castaways.

Prior to that unfortunate turn of events, however, Hale Jr. took a break from Gilligan and the gang to return to Dodge City. In the season 12 episode "Champion of the World" (1966), the Skipper actor portrayed ex-world heavyweight champion Bull Bannock, who arrives in town and tries to buy the Long Branch from Kathleen "Kitty" Russell (Amanda Blake). Funnily enough, he's soon swindled out of his money by a character known as Professor, though this one did not invent wacky contraptions and was played by Dan Tobin, not Russell Johnson.

In 1967, "Gilligan's Island" went off the air. "Gunsmoke," meanwhile, rolled on for years to come. The Western series' involvement in the castaway's fate, however, didn't seem to deter Alan Hale Jr. from returning to CBS Studio Center for another "Gunsmoke" episode. In 1972, he did just that, appearing in the Season 18 episode "Jubilee" as Dave Chaney, a gambler and horse owner.

The episode also features Tom Skerritt in what was his fifth and final appearance in a "Gunsmoke" episode, outdoing even Hale Jr. for the number of times he visited Marshal Matt Dillon and co. He plays Tuck Frye, a farmer who has neglected his family due to his obsession with his horse, Jubilee. After losing Jubilee to horseman Ed Wells (Scott Brady) Tuck bets his farm on Jubilee winning a race with another race horse owned by Hale's Dave Chaney. When Jubilee ultimately loses, Chaney demonstrates that he's actually a very fair-minded gambler.

That was the last time Hale Jr. appeared in a "Gunsmoke" episode. But it was even more significant, as Hale Jr.'s appearance in "Jubilee" was his last TV Western role. Two years later, the first of two "Gilligan's Island" animated spin-offs began airing, and Hale Jr. returned to the role of the Skipper. But after his final "Gunsmoke" appearance, he'd never set foot in the Old West again on TV (he did appear in the 1984 Western film "The Red Fury," however). Considering the shared history between that long-running CBS Western and "Gilligan's Island," plus the show's standing as one of, if not the greatest Western series of all time, it was a fitting way for Hale Jr. to wrap up his time on the frontier.