Skipper

Captain Jonas Grumby, usually called "Skipper" or The Skipper, is one of the main characters. He is the captain of the S.S. Minnow, the small excursion boat that ran ashore on the deserted island. He was played by Alan Hale Jr..

Personality
Jonas Grumby, aka The Skipper, is a good-natured and warm-hearted person, quick to take charge and take command of any situation that presents itself. As the benevolent and benign leader of the Castaways, he is always quick to make sure their safety and comfort are placed before his. Often resorting to his Navy training as guidance, he considers his captain's hat as a sign of authority, sometimes mentioning the rules of the Maritime Trade for guidance. Despite his jolly and amiable façade, he does sometimes show a very bad temper, especially where Gilligan is involved, but he never truly loses his temper. Despite several physical threats, the limits of his anger are quite limited to constantly smacking Gilligan with his cap to curb his juvenile comments, and Gilligan is quite conscious of this, once hesitating to let himself get smacked. The Skipper is very conscious to the fact that when Gilligan comes down out of a palm tree, he usually falls right on the Skipper. Gilligan is also known to drop stuff on the Skipper's foot, keeping the Skipper awake at night with strange tangents or not paying attention to where he swinging long sections of bamboo which eventually hits the Skipper. Although the Skipper often gets extremely angry with Gilligan, he never inflicts extreme injury on him beyond hitting him with his cap. On one occasion, the Professor even removes Gilligan's cap so the Skipper can smack him.

Being the biggest man on the island, the Skipper is very sensitive about his weight (221 Pounds); in Physical Fatness, when he sits on the Professor's scale, the Professor tells him it only goes up to 200 pounds. Likewise, when the Skipper sits on a fish scale, Gilligan tells him he weighs between a large mouth bass and a hammerhead shark! Despite his size, the Skipper does consider himself quite the lady's man, confessing he chased quite a few girls back home. He confesses once that he once tried proposing to a girl he met at a dance on a ship, but it turned out she was already married.

Before becoming a Charter Boat Captain, the Skipper was in the U.S. Navy, although there is not much known about his military career. He seems to have started out in the kitchen of an aircraft carrier where he worked as a cook, later getting transferred to a battleship where he served as its bandmaster. He later undertook officer's training and served alongside the 177th Infantry during World War Two, having three ships shot out from under him and converting a radio into a transmitter while trapped by enemy fire at Guadalcanal. He was also an accomplished poker player with the other officers in the Seventh Fleet, before leaving the Navy as a decorated captain and starting his excursion tour business in Honolulu. Due to his tour of duty in the South Pacific, the Skipper has met and encountered several Oceanic tribes, becoming very familiar with their myths and legends about gods, totems and mystical gems which he takes very seriously.

Season Appearances

 * Season 1
 * Season 2
 * Season 3

Outfits
The Skipper wears a short sleeved blue polo shirt, khaki pants, white sneakers and a black captain's cap. On cool island nights, he wears a white wind-breaker jacket. He stored his clothes in his duffel bag.

Possessions
The Skipper saved several things from the wreck of the Minnow which he kept in his sea chest including checkers, a checkerboard, a two-headed coin, old rechargeable batteries, a football picture from high school of himself in a huddle, a Singapore bottle cap he accidentally pulled off with his teeth, the bottle it came from and other objects. He also had a dead spider that had crawled in to his chest by itself.

Trivia

 * The Skipper tells Ginger his birthday is May 1 when she looks up his horoscope in They're Off and Running.
 * The Skipper only mentions one relative, his father, on the island; he refers to him as a world traveler in Home Sweet Hut. He also mentions a childhood friend nick-named "Stinky" in Forget Me Not.
 * He played football in high school and has a picture of himself in his chest in Forget Me Not; he also alludes to this in The Hunter.
 * He was at Guadalcanal during World War Two. The names of the men in his unit were Wikowski, MacInery, Lefcowitz, Evans, Ferguson, Entwhistle and Harris with the radio manual. Entwhistle was a gunner's mate.
 * As the biggest man on the island, the Skipper is very sensitive to any remarks concerning his weight.
 * Through the series, the Skipper comments the one thing he misses most is a nice thick steak. He expands on his preference in Forward March when he says he has his steak with onions, potatoes, fresh celery and carrots.
 * In the Hi-Fi Gilligan episode, the Skipper's missed punch at Gilligan knocks down a tree! In Allergy Time, his sneeze can also knock down a tree!
 * In the Nyet, Nyet, Not Yet episode, the Skipper admits he can drink scotch or bourbon but not Vodka. Other things the Skipper enjoys are steaks and chasing girls.
 * A running gag is the Skipper bonking Gilligan with his hat. In Smile, You're on Mars Camera, after the Skipper is stuck in the tree glue, it's Gilligan who bonks the Skipper with his white hat!
 * Although a former captain in the U.S. Navy during World War Two, the Skipper's military record is sketchy. he mentions he was the best poker player in the 7th Fleet in Plant You Now, Dig You Later, but he also mentions being in the 177th Infantry in Forget Me Not and a cook on an aircraft carrier in Wrongway Feldman. He also mentions in Allergy Time that he had three ships shot out from under him during World War Two.
 * The Skipper is almost always hitting Gilligan with his hat, usually for saying or doing something stupid. However, there are several variations of this. The Professor once removed Gilligan's hat so the Skipper could hit him. Once, Gilligan took the Skipper's hat and hit himself with it. In Don't Bug the Mosquitoes, Gilligan annoys the Skipper, and it's Mr. Howell that bonks him on the head with the Skipper's hat for the Skipper.