“Hey, Alan Hale. Isn’t that the Skipper?” “Take the wheel, Skipper.” “No, I will not call you little buddy.” “I almost called you Gilligan.” “Welcome to Skipper’s. Maybe you’d like to wait in the bar.” “What would you possibly need from an Alan Hale Jr.?” “Wow, starring Alan D’oh Hale!” “Oh don’t act with your tongue Alan.” Alan Hale Jr. Actor, larger than life personality, 50 years in show business, and The Skipper on Gilligan’s Island. How could we forget? In his later years, when was he not wearing the hat? The son of actor/director Alan Hale Sr. and silent film star Gretchen Hartman, you could say it was in the blood. Hale Jr. was in silent movies as a child.
By 1931, he debuted on Broadway in Caught Wet. He made it to the screen in Wild Boys of the Road (1933). A decade after he was seen in I Wanted Wings (1941), Dive Bomber (1941), All-American Co-Ed (1941), To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), Eagle Squadron (1942), Rubber Racketeers (1942), No Time for Love (1943), and Watch on the Rhine (1943). Joining the United States Coast Guard during WWII, he dropped “Junior” from his name after his father died in 1950. Once back home, he appeared in Monsieur Beaucaire (1946), Sweetheart of Sigma Chi (1946), It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), The Spirit of West Point (1947), Homecoming (1948), One Sunday Afternoon (1948), It Happens Every Spring (1949), Rim of the Canyon (1949), The Blazing Sun (1950), The Gunfighter (1950), Kill the Umpire (1950), The Underworld Story (1950), The West Point Story (1950).
He exploded on television cast in The Gene Autry Show, Man Against Crime, Biff Baker U.S.A., The Public Defender, Stage 7, Navy Log, The Red Skelton Show, Screen Director’s Playhouse, The Millionaire, The Alcoa Hour, Cheyenne. At this time his film career carried on. Hometown Story (1951), Honeychile (1951), The Big Trees (1952), Springfield Rifle (1952), At Sword’s Point (1952), Wait till the Sun Shines Nellie (1952), The Man Behind the Gun (1953), Trail Blazers (1953), Captain John Smith and Pochantas (1953), Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (1954), Rogue Cop (1954), Destry (1954), Young at Heart (1954), The Sea Chase (1955), A Man Alone (1955), The Indian Fighter (1955), The Killer Is Loose (1956), Battle Hymn (1957), The True Story of Jesse James (1957), All Mine to Give (1957), The Lady Takes a Flyer (1958), Up Periscope (1959), Thunder in Carolina (1960), The Iron Maiden (1962), The Crawling Hand (1963), Advance to the Rear (1964), Bullet for a Badman (1964).
On TV, he was the lead in Casey Jones and landed spots on Northwest Passage, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Texan, Bat Masterson, Bonanza, The Restless Gun, The Untouchables, The Alaskans, Shotgun Slade, Maverick, again on Cheyenne, The Jack Benny Program, The Real McCoys, Hawaiian Eye, Adventures in Paradise, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Perry Mason, The Andy Griffith Show, Wagon Train, Follow the Sun, more Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Laramie, Empire, The Lucy Show, again on Perry Mason, The New Phil Rivers Show, My Favorite Martian. And all this before Gilligan’s Island. Winning the co-starring role on Gilligan, the show lasted 3 seasons and is a beloved staple. Endlessly reshown to this day, Hale is very much a part of that.
Post Gilligan, the man’s work kept booming. Appearances on Batman, Hondo, The Wild Wild West, Daktari, Green Acres, The Flying Nun, The Good Guys, The Andersonville Trial, Here’s Lucy, Ironside, Alias Smith and Jones, The Doris Day Show, O’Hara U.S. Treasury, more Gunsmoke, McMillan & Wife, the voice of The Skipper on The New Adventures of Gilligan, The Wonderful World of Disney, The Skipper in Rescue from Gilligan’s Island, Sweepstakes, The Skipper in The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island, Revenge of Red Chief, The Littlest Hobo, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Skipper in The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island, more Love Boat, the voice of The Skipper on Gilligan’s Planet, Matt Houston, Murder She Wrote, Magnum P.I., Simon & Simon, ALF, Growing Pains, The Law & Harry McGraw. And further movie roles in Hang Em’ High (1968), Tiger by the Tail (1970), There Was a Crooked Man… (1970), The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), The North Avenue Irregulars (1979), Angels Revenge (1979), The Fifth Musketeer (1979), Hambone and Hillie (1983), The Red Fury (1984), Johnny Dangerously (1984), Terror Night (1987), and Back to the Beach (1987).
The man was everywhere and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Three Hale movies shipwrecked on MST3K. The Crawling Hand, The Giant Spider Invasion, and Angel’s Revenge. The Glligan jokes fire the second he or his name appears. “Little Buddy” and “The Skipper” are hard to resist and so is he. Much of The Giant Spider Invasion’s fame rests with him. Which is cheesier? Him or the spiders? I don’t honestly know. You decide. No Button or “Joke Comin In!”?
