Dwayne Bernard Hickman was a former American television actor and television executive at CBS, possibly best known for his role in the 50s TV-series, "Dobie Gillis."
Born in Los Angeles, California on May 18, 1934 to a show-biz family, he was the younger brother of child actor Darryl Hickman, who starred with the Little Rascals in the "Our Gang" short, Melodies Old and New. Both brothers starred in the series, "Men of Annapolis" and two episodes of "The Lone Ranger."
As a teenager, Dwayne Hickman had a minor starring role on "The Bob Cummings Show" from 1955 to 1959 while he was attending college Loyola University (now Loyola Marymount University). The role resulted in landing the main role on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" from 1959 to 1963. The series also starred Bob Denver before "Gilligan's Island." Going blonde for the role, Hickman considered Bob Cummings a childhood television hero, having said that Cummings taught him all that he knew about acting, but after the series ended he found himself typecast as a teenager and unable to get acting roles as adults. He appeared in "The Ford Show Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford" and "The Greatest Show on Earth" with Jack Palance. In 1965, he starred in the comedy film, "Cat Ballou" with Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin.
Eventually becoming involved in production roles. Hickman served as a programming executive at CBS from 1977 to 1988 and worked as a director on various television series, including "Designing Women" and "Head of the Class." He also reprised his role of Dobie Gillis in two television movie reunions, "Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis" in 1977 and "Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis" in 1988. He also joined Bob Denver in Surviving Gilligan's Island playing one of the CBS studio executives disinterested in "Gilligan's Island" as a series.
Hickman died on January 9, 2022, at the age of 87 due to complications from Parkinson’s Disease. At the time of his death, he was retired and living in Los Angeles, California with Joan Roberts, his wife of thirty eight years, and dabbling in oil painting. They formed, Hickman/Roberts Productions, Inc. and began publishing limited edition canvas prints of his artwork.