Dawn Wells

Born October 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada, Dawn Elberta Wells plays the character of Mary Ann Summers, a sweet naive country girl modeled after Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and a well-meaning clerk from Winfield, Kansas. Her character is described as gentle, kind and exceptionally warmhearted.

She has performed in over 66 theatrical productions, including the National Touring Company of "They're Playing Our Song!" She has done 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. She had a new project in the works for release in 2005. Along the way, she has appeared in numerous guest roles on other successful TV shows since the 1960's, such as "Wagon Train," "Bonanza," "Hawaiian Eye," "The Invaders," "The Wild Wild West," "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island" and "Roseanne." After "Gilligan's Island," she played versions of Mary Ann on "Alf" and "Baywatch."

Wells did not seem to mind her role as Mary Ann as much as Tina Louise had with Ginger and seemed to embrace it in her later endeavors. In 1993, she wrote "Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook", a compilation of various castaway-related recipes. Shortly before his death in 1990, Alan Hale Jr. contributed "Skipper's Coconut Pie," "Skipper's Navy Bean Soup," and "Skipper's Goodbye Ribeye" to the book, which was then a work in progress.

After years of touring and performing in dramas, comedies, and musical theatre, Dawn slowed down a bit, and 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 still runs the camp to this day. 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," of which she served as the artistic director, in the summer of 2004.

In 2008, Wells came to Los Angeles to join Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of Gilligan's Island for the celebration of Schwartz's entry into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She also has her own clothing line for the physically challenged called "Wishing Wells Collections" and she recently launched her own skincare line, "Classic Beauty."

She also mentors young actors and travels to colleges all across the United States to teach "Master Classes."