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Meet ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Star Bob Denver’s Wife Dreama: Inside Their 26-Year Marriage
Fourth time was a charm for television icon Bob Denver! After three divorces, the Gilligan’s Island star wed Dreama in March 1979 and was happily married for over 26 years until his death in September 2005.
How Did Bob and Dreama Meet?
Bob first met his future wife Dreama Perry in Florida, on the set of a stage production of Woody Allen’s, Play It Again, Sam.
“I said, ‘Gilligan, really?’ ” Dreama recalled she asked after discovering the identity of their play’s leading man. “Seriously, I’m going to do love scenes with Gilligan?”
Despite the initial shock, she admits that once they finally met each other, it was love at first sight. “The minute we shook hands,” Dreama said, “each of us thought: ‘Ah, there you are!’ We never stopped being appreciative of what we had.”
Bob played Willy Gilligan, the titular character of the hit show that made him a household name and hapless first mate of the ship-wrecked vessel. However, unlike the goofy character he portrayed, Dreama said her husband “was very romantic, very attentive and very sexy.”
Did Bob and Dreama Have Any Children?
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis star had three older children from his earlier marriages: Patrick Denver and Megan Denver with first wife Maggie Ryan and Emily Denver with third wife Carole Abrahams.
Bob and Dreama welcomed a son, Colin, Bob’s fourth child, in 1984. “Bob was a great dad who adored his kids,” Dreama said.
The pair created a loving blended home, where all of Bob’s children were welcome and cared for. At age 2, Colin was diagnosed with severe autism, which required special attention from his parents.
“What most people don’t know about Bob is that he spent the last 20 years of his life with me providing full-time care to our son,” said Dreama, who also added that Bob largely dropped out of the spotlight to be there for his family. “He loved his son and he loved me. We did it together.”
Bob Denver Passes Away
A lifelong smoker, Bob had undergone treatment for throat cancer – including surgery – and a bypass operation in 2005. He suffered complications as a result of the extensive medical work, which included pneumonia, and died on September 2, 2005 at 70.
Dreama Denver’s Career
Dreama is an award-winning author of a number of books, including two memoirs about her marriage to Bob – Gilligan’s Dreams: The Other Side of the Island and Island to Icon: the Many Lives of Bob Denver.
She had some acting parts before meeting her future husband in the early 1970s. After marrying the T.V. star she appeared in a Gilligan’s Island reunion movie with him, costarred alongside him in a T.V. pilot titled “Scamps” and toured North America with her husband for Gilligan’s Island-related events.
She retired from show business for nearly two decades and moved to West Virginia to raise their son, while also founding The Denver Foundation, which helps assist special-needs children and running Little Buddy Radio, a non-profit radio station funded by the foundation.
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