Former Gilligan’s Island star Tina Louise is the last living original cast member from the classic 1960s sitcom.
Louise, 91, memorably played spoiled starlet Ginger Grant for three seasons on Gilligan’s Island between 1964 and 1967, but also made news in the ‘60s for her marriage to talk show host Les Crane at the height of her fame. Crane’s occasionally confrontational interview style was a forerunner for the combative talk shows that would become the norm decades later. Louise and Crane were only married for five years, but welcomed daughter (and future MTV producer) Caprice Crane before splitting in 1971. These days, Louise lives a quiet life away from the spotlight and dedicates most of her time to helping children learn to read.
Keep scrolling for a look at the Louise’s high-profile marriage, her daughter’s huge success in TV and what the actress’s life is like today:
Childhood
Louise (real name Tina Blacker) was the daughter of fashion model Sylvia Horn and Brooklyn candy store owner Joseph Blacker. Horn was only 18 years old when she gave birth to her daughter in 1934, and her marriage to Blacker broke down by the time Louise was 4 years old.
In a 2025 New York Times profile, Louise recalled being bounced between harsh boarding schools and her parents’ dysfunctional homes throughout her childhood. After a brief period living with her father, Tina’s mother took her in at age 11 after marrying her third of four husbands.
“I didn’t have hugs,” she said of her childhood. “I didn’t have loving situations.”
Blacker recalled being angry that her father didn’t put up any legal fight to retain custody when her mother cut off all communication between them. Louise ended up estranged from her dad until her career breakthrough in 1958’s Golden Globe-winning movie God’s Little Acre when she was 24.
The actress now says she holds a sympathetic view of her mother since Sylvia was only a teenager when she gave birth.
“She didn’t have the loving that she needed,” Louise said. “She always needed a man to lean on.”
Marriage
Louise married Crane while working on Gilligan’s Island in 1966. Crane had a varied and influential career as both a talk show host and an actor.
Crane’s late-night show, Night Line (later known as The Les Crane Show), aired on WABC-TV in New York City starting in 1963, and was perhaps most notable in its local format for hosting The Rolling Stones in their American TV debut in June 1964.
After ending his talk show, Crane drifted between hosting and acting jobs before moving into the software industry in the 1980s. Perhaps his most famous acting gig was starring with Louise as a married couple in a 1970 episode of the ABC’s anthology comedy show Love, American Style.
Les died at age 74 in July 2008. His and Louise’s daughter, Caprice Crane, later paid tribute to her father’s innovations in numerous industries.
“He was amazing. He was a fighter pilot. He was a radio DJ. He was a TV talk show host,” she told Pop Entertainment in 2009. “He won a Grammy. He started an internet company. He was all over the map. And everything he did, he succeeded in.”
Caprice went on, “He was always the first one to do something new. He was right on the edge, finding the next thing, before anyone else did. He was so smart and so funny and he died too young.”
Children
Tina and Les’ daughter, Caprice, was born in November 1970, only a few months before her parents called it quits.
After graduating from New York University, Caprice got her start in the entertainment industry as a writer-producer for MTV, where she worked on the MTV Movie Awards and was involved in the production of sports specials for the network.
She later moved on to writing novels and screenplays for Hollywood, including working on the reboots of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place in the 2000s.
In 2009, Caprice told Pop Entertainment that Louise was always hugely “supportive” of her Hollywood aspirations even though the actress walked away from the industry.
“My mom is fantastic. She’s so great, so adorable, so supportive. And we’re obviously so close,” she said. “She misses me, and if there is one thing I don’t like about living [in LA], it’s not being so close to my mom. Some people think this is insane, but when I’m in New York, my apartment is literally one block away from my mom’s apartment. And I love it. I could even live in the same building as her, but probably not the same floor. I love having her that close.”
Life Today
Louise never officially retired from acting but has chosen to live away from the spotlight in recent years. The actress infamously refused to reprise her role as Ginger Grant for three Gilligan’s Island TV movies in the 1970s and ‘80s, but did appear in 1975’s classic science fiction film The Stepford Wives and later costarred with Brad Pitt in 1991’s Johnny Suede.
The actress told The New York Times in March 2025 that, while she’s “very grateful” of her time on Gilligan’s Island, she would prefer “to be known for other things.” Louise explained that part of her reticence with the legacy of Gilligan’s Island is due to the cast making “so little money” during production and “not a cent” from more than 50 years of reruns.
In 1996, Louise got involved with the advocacy group Learning Leaders, which helps train tutors to teach children to read.
“I loved it, being anonymous, just being the person who read to the children,” Louise told the publication. “That was very important to me because nobody ever read to me.”
She went on, “I love being in their presence for an hour. It’s better than vitamins. I can’t get back what I went through, but outside of being with my family, doing this is my special thing.”
In a March 2025 Forbes profile, Louise said she’d recently promised Caprice and her newborn granddaughter that she would “live [another] 40 years.”
“I’m going to do the best I can. I’m not thinking about leaving,” she insisted. “I don’t think of that. I don’t want to think about it. I’m running to stay healthy. I’m walking to the gym. I’m just thinking about staying alive for my family. I love being alive.”
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