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Dawn Wells, Best Known as Mary Ann on ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ Dies From COVID-19

The former beauty pageant queen and TV star had battled through financial hardship in recent years.

Actor Dawn Wells, best known as Mary Ann in the 1960s sitcom Gilligan’s Island, died on Wednesday from COVID-19 complications, her publicist said. Born in Reno, Nevada, Wells was a Miss America pageant winner before making her TV debut. She appeared in shows like 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, Bonanza and The Joey Bishop Show before becoming Mary Ann—a role she later reprised in TV spin-offs and reunion films. She performed in theatrical shows in the 1970s and 1980s but, after the financial crash in 2008, she lost “everything including her life savings” and had to undergo life-threatening surgery after an “unexpected accident,” according to a GoFundMe set up for her in 2018 that raised nearly $200,000. She died in Los Angeles, aged 82.