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Coming upon this 2012
post (#56 from the thread) by "Coolfool" drew my attention to the later Ginger, leading to a post featuring the lovely actress behind that Ginger which may be
found here. Yet what I was really thinking about was the ways in which I may contribute to this thread that has lovingly been devoted to Ms. Wells since 2008.
I went through the entire thread, noticing the usual repeats, and the concentration of posts focusing on the role that made Dawn famous. Before I continue, the
Gilligan's Island images reminded me of a wonderful "porno" shot that I had run into years ago, which had impressed me with its workmanship. The part of the photo that was of interest has been cropped above, and for nostalgia's sake, I wondered if I could find that corrupted shot again.
The original photo has been pointed to in this thread at least once, and I'm going to make use of when Member "Johnbear" put it up in 2015, and I'm going to follow it up with the "porno" shot that I found on VEF's "Vintage Celebrity Fakes" thread, where Member "Moyman" put up a whole bunch of altered photographs, in 2014's
Post #974, from that thread:
There! Now life is a bit more complete.
So what I noticed while going through the thread was the scant attention paid to Dawn's non-Gilligan screen appearances. Let's see if we may remedy that situation a bit.
The following is from "The Deadly Image," a 1961 episode of
Maverick's fourth season:
Although three years before her role as the wholesome Mary Ann, Dawn had a chance to act as more of a grown-up in this episode.
Then in 1976's
The Town That Dreaded Sundown, a film that was handled almost documentary-style and was based on a real-life (unsolved) killing (also serving as a trailblazer of the slasher film genre; this film was an interesting cross between horror and crime), Dawn was given a chance to really grow up:
While getting away from typecasting was a positive thing overall, let's face it; no one wanted to see this heartthrob get bloodied. Now... the next film was more up Dawn's alley, entering goody-two-shoes territory:
High School U.S.A. (1983):
Finally, Dawn had a chance to send up her Mary Ann character in two episodes of
She's Still on That Freakin' Island, first in 2015 (which may be viewed
here, with some humorous lines, especially regarding the digs against Ginger), and the second in 2017. The photos below come from the first episode, and you may agree that she didn't look bad, at seventy-seven.
When I heard Dawn Wells died in 2020, of course it was heartbreaking. The cause of death being COVID-19 made the news even worse.
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