Prior to “Gilligan’s Island,” actor Natalie Schafer had a massive career on stage and screen. She made her Broadway debut in the play “Trigger” in 1927 and would appear regularly on stage throughout the ’20s and ’30s. She made her feature film debut in 1941 in the invisible man comedy “The Body Disappears” and continued to act in movies throughout the ’40s. Schafer added TV acting to her resume starting in 1948. Appearing in most of the hit variety shows of the 1950s, she was a reliable comedienne of the first order, showing up in “77 Sunset Strip,” “Mannix,” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Schafer, it seemed, never stopped working.

When Shafer was 64, she was offered the role of Lovey Howell, the millionaire, on Sherwood Schwartz’s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island.” Despite decades of work, “Gilligan’s Island” would become the feather in Schafer’s cap — the show she would become best known for. Mrs. Howell was a wispy, comedically oblivious character, so used to being rich that she didn’t seem to understand what poverty was like. Even when stranded on a tropical island, Mrs. Howell was always sure to wear nice clothes, mix potent cocktails, and lounge in handmade deckchairs. Being cast away didn’t mean one had to give up luxury.

As it happens, though, Schafer didn’t audition for the role of Lovey Howell because she felt she had some kind of special insight into the character, or because she knew she would be more capable than any other actors vying for the role. According to a 1994 CJAD radio interview between Peter Anthony Holder and Bob Denver (the Gilligan of “Gilligan’s Island”), Schafer only took the role because she knew the show took place on an uncharted desert island, and that she would, at least for a short while, be shooting in Hawai’i. Schafer, it seems, just wanted a vacation.

Holder asked Denver about his time working on “Gilligan’s Island,” as well as a few questions about his six co-stars. When Holder asked if there was any truth to the rumors that Natalie Schafer took the role of Mrs. Howell in the initial “Gilligan’s Island” pilot just to get a free vacation out of it, Denver responded immediately in the positive. Indeed, Denver even recalled how dismayed Schafer was when the pilot got picked up and she would have to keep playing the part … on soundstages in Los Angeles. The vacation was over. As Denver put it:

“That’s right! Her story was that she was in Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta […] on a vacation and at the time her mother was ill in Los Angeles. And a telegram came to her table at dinner and she read it and burst into tears and all of her friends with her on vacation said, ‘Oh Natalie, is it your Mother? Is something wrong?’ And she said, ‘No, the pilot sold!’ That was one of her favorite stories. I mean […] they kind of almost convinced her it wouldn’t sell. It was just a vacation for her. After we started shooting, she really got into it. She was really a great lady.” 

Schafer, of course, was a professional. One doesn’t sleepwalk through a role after more than 40 years plying one’s craft. She played Lovey Howell with aplomb.

After “Gilligan’s Island,” Schafer continued to appear on TV with alarming frequency, appearing on “Love, American Style,” “Mannix,” “Three’s Company,” and dozens of others. Her final performance was in Tobe Hooper’s 1990 TV movie “I’m Dangerous Tonight,” a bizarre film about a haunted dress. Schafer passed away in 1991 at the age of 90, leaving behind a massive entertainment legacy. She may have only wanted to take a vacation, but Schafer managed to become a pop icon regardless.