Face-Off: Favorite of the Three Famous Hollywood Denvers
They've all been gone for a while, but which of the three most famous entertainers named "Denver" was your favorite?
Discuss here: http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000088/flat/252995889
Discuss here: http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000088/flat/252995889
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- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bob Denver was attending college at Loyola-Marymount University, in Los Angeles, when he got into acting. At first, Denver wasn't sure he wanted to be an actor, but gradually gave in, deciding that's what he was going to do for a career. Before he became established, he worked as a mailman and teacher. He then got a screen test for the part of Maynard G. Krebs and to his surprise won the part. After four years on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), Denver got his most famous part of Gilligan, in Gilligan's Island (1964). After Gilligan's three-year run ended he did a few other television shows (including the Gilligan wannabe Dusty's Trail (1973)) and Broadway plays. On September 2, 2005, he died of complications related to cancer treatment at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina. He had most recently lived in Princeton, West Virgina. He is survived by his wife Dreama Perry Denver, and four children.- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Actor
His birth occurred on Friday, December 31st, 1943, as the son of an Air Force officer, Denver was constantly moved from state to state and country to country. It was in Tucson, Arizona, that his grandmother gave him his first acoustic guitar, a gift that would prove an icebreaker when meeting other students at the many new schools in which he was placed. After settling with his family in Fort Worth, Texas, Denver ran away to California for a short time. He returned to Texas and graduated from high school, but soon returned to California on a more permanent basis. He began performing at Leadbetter's night club in West Los Angeles but had a major career breakthrough when he was selected to replace the departing Chad Mitchell of The Chad Mitchell Trio. He remained with that organization until 1968 when he struck out on his own. From 1969 through 1975, Denver was the top-selling recording artist, appearing on both country and pop charts alike. His peak year was 1975, during which he was awarded the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year in addition to being selected as the American Guild of Variety Artists' Singing Star of the Year. During this period, he tried his hand at acting, appearing as Deputy Dewey Cobb in a 1973 episode of McCloud (1970) and hosting Day of the Bighorn (1974), an ecologically-minded television special. His most memorable role came in 1977 when he starred opposite George Burns in the hit comedy, Oh, God! (1977). Following this, his record sales began to decline, and he made fewer movies and television specials. He became something of a political activist, with his main focus being on environmental issues. He was killed on Sunday, October 12th, 1997, (505 years after Christopher Columbus' discovery of North America) when the plane he was piloting crashed into Monterey Bay. John Denver's lifetime: 19,616 days (2,802 weeks & 2 days).- Actor
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
A rather wanderlust fellow before he latched onto acting, Denver Pyle--who made a career of playing drawling, somewhat slow Southern types--was actually born in Colorado in 1920, to a farming family. He attended a university for a time but dropped out to become a drummer. When that didn't pan out he drifted from job to job, doing everything from working the oil fields in Oklahoma to the shrimp boats in Texas. In 1940 he moseyed off to Los Angeles and briefly found employment as a (somewhat unlikely) NBC page. That particular career was interrupted by World War II, and Pyle enlisted in the navy. Wounded in the battle of Guadalcanal, he received a medical discharge in 1943. Working for an aircraft plant in Los Angeles as a riveter, the rangy actor was introduced to the entertainment field after receiving a role in an amateur theater production and getting spotted by a talent scout. Training with such renowned teachers as Maria Ouspenskaya and Michael Chekhov, he made his film debut in The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947). Pyle went on to roles in hundreds of film and TV parts, bringing a touch of Western authenticity to many of his roles. A minor villain or sidekick in the early 1950s, he often received no billing. Prematurely white-haired (a family trait), he became a familiar face on episodes of Gunsmoke (1955) and Bonanza (1959) and also developed a close association with actor John Wayne, appearing in many of Wayne's later films, including The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Alamo (1960), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973). Pyle's more important movie roles came late in his career. One of his most memorable was in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) as Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, the handcuffed hostage of the duo, who spits in Bonnie's (Faye Dunaway) face after she coyly poses with him for a camera shot. He settled easily into hillbilly/mountain men types in his later years and became a household face for his crotchety presence in The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1977) and, especially, The Dukes of Hazzard (1979). He died of lung cancer at age 77.