Acting
Dawn Wells
Born 1938-10-18 · Reno, Nevada, USA
A wholesome beauty with comedic appeal, Dawn Elberta Wells was born on October 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada. Wells' childhood was a happy and healthy one. She and her mother grew their own fruits and vegetables in their gardens and Dawn rode horses. In her high school years, she was the class treasurer, President of the debate team and an honor roll student. Dawn was on her way to becoming a ballerina, but bad knees prevented her from realizing the dream. She was Miss Nevada in 1959 and went on to the 1960 Miss America Pageant. Dawn had wanted to be a doctor, and enrolled in the elite Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri to study medicine, but then she discovered the Drama Club. She then transferred to the University of Washington, which was known for their Theatre Department, and she graduated with a Degree in Theatre. Dawn moved to Hollywood and was cast as Mary Ann Summers on CBS's Gilligan's Island (1964). The rest is history. However, there was much more to Dawn than her simple Mary Ann character. Wells refused to be an unemployed actor after the show ended and was never out of work since the show decades ago. She performed in over 66 theatrical productions, including the National Touring Company of "They're Playing Our Song!" She did countless voice-overs, commercials and talk shows. She worked for the Australian news show "Midday" and interviewed such talents as Julia Roberts, Eddie Murphy and Tom Hanks, to name a few. Dawn has also had great success as a producer and has a number of television movies to her credit. After years of touring and performing in dramas, comedies, and musical theatre, Dawn slowed down a little. In 1998, she founded the Dawn Wells' Film Actors Boot Camp in Driggs, Idaho. The camp is for the already trained actor looking to make the transition from the amateur to the professional actor. Wells managed the camp for many years. She has been in a popular commercial for Western Union, capitalizing on her character Mary Ann Summers. In 2003, Dawn did tours of the plays "Love Letters" with Adam West and Eve Ensler's Award Winning "The Vagina Monologues." In early 2004, Dawn established and founded The Spud Film Institute in Idaho and Wyoming, and held the first ever Spud Drive in Film and Music Festival in the summer of 2004. She was also the artistic director of the festival. If that is not enough, Ms. Wells also had her own clothing line for the physically challenged called "Wishing Wells Collections" and she recently launched her own skin care line, Classic Beauty. Dawn Wells continued to contribute to the business she loved so much and constantly gave back to the acting community. She mentored young actors and traveled to colleges all across the United States to teach Master Classes. She served as Artist in Residence at several Universities. Dawn was in constant demand for personal appearances and speaking engagements, yet never forgot to give back to the Artistic community. She will surely be remembered for all her good work. Wells passed away on December 30, 2020 at age 82. You can get information about all of Dawn's organizations at her website, dawn-wells.com.
Acting credits
5.8When two young lovers are savagely beaten and tortured on a back country road in Texarkana, local police are baffled and must find "the Phantom Killer" before he can kill again.
The Town That Dreaded Sundown
1976
4.5When a decaying Russian satellite crashes on the island, the Professor uses a key component for a barometer. With that device, he learns that a massive wave is going to swamp the island. In desperation, the castaways lash their huts together into one structure in order to have any chance to ride the disaster out.
Rescue from Gilligan's Island
1978
5.8The rivalry between two door-to-door vacuum cleaner distributors gets out of hand as competing sales teams race to sell the most in 30 days.
Super Sucker
2002
5.5Set in a senior high school class, J.J. pursues the girlfriend of a rival from a higher clique which culminates in a race at the end of the movie between the two rivals in this light comedy.
High School U.S.A.
1983
5.3A pair of lovers have no idea that their affair is overseen and orchestrated by an angel sent by Cupid to see that they remain together in this romantic comedy.
Lover's Knot
1996
4.8Young doctors mix romance with their careers in a big-city hospital.
The New Interns
1964
2.5Senior citizens are being offed by a masked killer in their small retirement community.
Silent but Deadly
2012
5.2The Harlem Globetrotters' chartered plane crash lands on the atoll inhabited by the happily marooned Gilligan and fellow castaways, and they all must play basketball against a specially programmed squad of robots controlled by a mad scientist.
The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island
1981
6.6Smallpox plagues Chief Winterhawk's tribe. He seeks cure from the white men, who in turn, in fear of getting the smallpox, kill two of his companions. Winterhawk comes back to kidnap a girl and her brother from the white men's settlement, and thus begins the chase...
Winterhawk
1975
3.8A man who is immortal can bring his wife back from the dead temporarily by killing young women. But his latest would-be victim may be a problem.
Soulmates
1992
7.2A campy look at the making of the 1964-67 TV series, as told by stars Bob Denver, Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson, as well as in flashbacks (actors play the castaways). Bob/Gilligan: Jon Wellner. Dawn/Mary Ann: Samantha Harris. Tina/Ginger: Kristen Dalton. Alan/Skipper: Eric Allan Kramer. Russell/Professor: Michael Wiseman. Jim/Mr. Howell: Steve Vinovich. Natalie/Mrs. Howell: E.J. Peaker. Sherwood Schwartz: Aaron Lustig.
Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History
2001
6.6In the second of three additional Gilligan's Island movies following the series, the gang finds a way of getting rescued from the "uncharted desert isle" for a second time through a series of misadventures but comes back to turn it into a tropical resort for uptight mainlanders.
The Castaways on Gilligan's Island
1979
4.8After graduation, five friends set out to make a difference in the world for God. Their ambitions are high, their passions are strong but will they have the courage to fulfill their calling regardless of what comes their way. The sacrifice they are asked to pay may just be too high. Through Godly council from an outside source, the group realizes that this is not their time after all, it's all His.
This Is Our Time
2013
5.5At the height of the Cold War, Gilligan's Island depicted seven Americans living in an analogue of a post-apocalyptic world where the survivors have to rebuild civilization. Remarkably, the society they create is pure communist. Interviews with the show's creator and some of the surviving actors, as well from professors from Harvard, reveal that Gilligan's Island was deliberately designed to be dismissed as low brow comedy in order to celebrate Marxism and lampoon Western democratic constructs.
The Gilligan Manifesto
2018
4.5Three children and two adults become trapped in the woods during a hurricane and it is up to a Bigfoot-like creature called 'Big Bay-Ty' to come to their rescue.
Return to Boggy Creek
1977