"Gilligan's "Mary Ann" to Visit Triad"
by Jim Longworth
March 27th, 2018
Dawn Wells was born October 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada. Her father Joe was part-owner in a Las Vegas hotel, and her mother Evelyn was a homemaker, and a bit overprotective of her daughter. “My mother knew where I was every single second. My junior year in college, I’m driving from Reno to Seattle with my boyfriend, and the highway patrol pulls us over. I rolled down the window and the policeman said, ‘Is there a Dawn Wells in the car?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Call your mother,’ he said.” [Dawn laughs] Dawn won the Miss Nevada contest in 1959, competed in the Miss America pageant, then caught the acting bug in college. Soon afterward, she found steady work on television, often guest-starring in westerns like Cheyenne, Maverick, Wagon Train, and many others. She was a natural fit for westerns because her great-great-grandfather was a stagecoach driver, and Dawn had ridden horses since she was a child. “I remember one of the first western episodes I did, they asked me, ‘Can you drive a buckboard?’ I hadn’t driven a buckboard in my life, but I said ‘Of course I can!’ My horse got away and they had to come get me. [laughs]” After appearing as Mary Ann in over a hundred Gilligan episodes that are still in re-runs, Dawn is one of the most recognizable actresses on the planet, and is in constant demand at nostalgia conventions and on talk shows. But starting next month, her schedule gets even busier as she launches her tour in High Point. I first met Dawn in 2013 when she attended the Western Film Festival in Winston-Salem. We re-connected last week and talked about her book and the tour. JL: Why did you write the book in the first place? As a special treat, the audience will be able to ask Dawn questions during the second half of her show. You can ask her about Gilligan’s Island, or you can even ask her for advice. Just don’t ask her if she can drive a buckboard. Tickets are still available for the April 28 performance, and can be purchased online at www.etix.com or by calling the High Point Theatre box office at (336) 887-3001. |