Commorientes: “simultaneous deaths”
Ante: (no longer productive) Prior to in time.
Needed a fancy word that makes no sense to document the order of passing of the characters of the 1964-1967 sitcom Gilligan’s Island.
The Kill Order
James Gilmore Backus; Thurston Howell III: July 3, 1989; 76 years old
Alan Hale Jr.; Captain Jonas “The Skipper” Grumby: January 2, 1990; 68 years old
Natalie Shafer; Eunice “Lovey” Howell: April 10, 1991; 90 years old
Charles Carlton Maxwell; Radio Announcer: August 7, 1993; 79 years old
Bob Denver; Willy Gilligan: September 2, 2005; 70 years old
Russel David Johnson; “The Professor” Roy Hinkley, Ph.D: January 16, 2014; 89 years old
Dawn Elberta Wells; Mary Ann Summers: December 30, 2020; 82 years old
Tina Louise; Ginger Grant: Still Alive
Dead Movies
I had an idea a long time ago to find movies where a high percentage of the main actors that were present in the film were deceased, thus making the film somewhat more relevant to watching. The problem came with data in movies, as all the people who were a part the production could either be in a main or minor role and there was no source of data with only main characters or characters with >50% screentime to determine this morbid ratio.
Performing the same calculation with Series-based productions where the performer is in X out of Y episodes gives a better breakdown which is why Charles Maxwell “The Radio Announcer” is present in the list above. Gilligan’s Island is 87.5% deceased (7/8 performers) instead of 85.7% deceased (6/7 performers) by this metric.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
In all this rambling my wife made me aware of this conversation in the movie Dazed and Confused about Gilligan’s Island:
- Kaye Faulkner: And there you guys were in class, trying to list all the Gilligan’s Island episodes without even a *hint* of irony.
- Shavonne Wright: What the hell are you talking about, girl?
- Kaye Faulkner: Weren’t thinking about it, were you?
- Shavonne Wright: Gilligan’s Island?
- Kaye Faulkner: It’s what known as a male pornographic fantasy.
- Shavonne Wright: [laughs] Oh my…
- Kaye Faulkner: Think about it! You’re basically alone on a deserted island with two readily available women. One, a seductive sex goddess type. The other… a healthy girl-next-door type with a nice butt. So guys have it all – the Madonna and the whore. And women get nothing! We get a geek… an overweight middle-aged guy… some nerdy scientific type, I mean…
- Jodi: [interrupts] The professor… is sexy.