Nancy McCarthy (born June 8, 1937 in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, Pennsylvania) is an American actress perhaps best known for her role as "Bunny" in the original 1963 pilot (unaired until 1992) for '' Gilligan's Island''.

Career

After the ''Gilligan's Island'' pilot was made, series creator

Sherwood Schwartz Sherwood Charles Schwartz (; November 14, 1916 – July 12, 2011) was an American television screenwriter and producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, but he now is best known for creating the 1960s television series '' Gilligan's Isla ...

, after many network problems, decided to make changes, including dropping McCarthy's character. She also appeared in two other unaired TV pilots: ''Zelda'' with Sheila James and on ''The Peter Lorre Playhouse''. McCarthy made appearances on a total of eight episodes of other television series, including ''

My Three Sons ''My Three Sons'' is an American television sitcom that aired from September 29, 1960, to April 13, 1972. The series was broadcast on ABC during its first five seasons, before moving to CBS for the remaining seasons. ''My Three Sons'' chroni ...

'', ''

The Donna Reed Show ''The Donna Reed Show'' is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the middle-class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz co-stars as her pediatrician husband Dr. Alex Stone, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children, Mary ...

'', ''

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis ''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'' (also known as simply ''Dobie Gillis'' or ''Max Shulman's Dobie Gillis'' in later seasons and in syndication) is an American sitcom starring Dwayne Hickman that aired on CBS from September 29, 1959, to June 5 ...

'', '' Adventures in Paradise'', '' Lock Up'' and ''

Surfside 6 ''Surfside 6'' is an ABC television series which aired from 1960 to 1962. The show centered on a Miami Beach detective agency set on a houseboat and featured Troy Donahue as Sandy Winfield II; Van Williams as Kenny Madison (a character recyc ...

'' . McCarthy originally made her New York stage debut as Dixie Evans in ''

The Big Knife ''The Big Knife'' is a 1955 melodrama directed and produced by Robert Aldrich from a screenplay by James Poe based on the 1949 play by Clifford Odets. The film stars Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winte ...

'' at the Seven Arts Playhouse in 1959, which starred Carroll O'Connor and was directed by Peter Bogdanovich.Playbill/The Big Knife/NYC/1959 She appeared in several live television plays produced in New York including ''True Story'', ''Divorce Court,'' and ''Moment of Fear'' with Robert Redford on the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" series. On stage in Los Angeles she played Maggie in ''After The Fall''. Her regional credits include Flirt in ''Dark at the Top of the Stairs'' with Sylvia Sydney at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis Massachusetts and Maisie in ''The Boy Friend'' at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. McCarthy retired from acting after suffering a back injury in 1972, but continued to work as a print and fashion model and, later, in the advertising and design field. Her final television credit is the pilot for ''Gilligan's Island'', which finally aired on TBS on 16 October 1992, twenty-nine years after it was filmed.

Personal life

Nancy Darlyne McCarthy grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama. She began her acting career by appearing in local theater and performing on a weekly radio play. While still a student in college, she auditioned for director

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...

for the title role in his movie ''Saint Joan''. McCarthy married twice, first to a fellow actor, and later to a businessman to whom she is still married. References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Nancy 1937 births Living people American television actresses 21st-century American women American stage actresses