Why did Tina Louise’s career go straight down the shitter?

She said no to Weinstein! That’s what I say about anything with talent that is not famous.

She was too well liked to have a career.

After a while, the carpet ended up not matching the drapes.

the last time I saw her was in a Married with Children episode. And that was in the 80s.

Actors from other corny sitcoms get asked on talk shows decades later because they like to play along, but she does not have a sense of humor. I remember seeing her on a comedy show in the 80s. She was reserved but polite enough talking about her career. When the interviewer tried to make a joke about Gilligan's Island (why didn't the Professor make a boat if they wanted to leave?) her face became very stony and for a split second, she sneered before regaining composure and just ignoring the question.

Famous gossip that she used to be one of Jim Aubrey's girls.

She was gorgeous but only modestly talented and had zero sense of humor about herself or her status as a celebrity.

After her looks started to fade and she started with the horrible plastic surgery and poor style choices, it quickly went downhill.

Tina, oh Tina!

Poor thing actually looks like the Crypt Keeper.

Yes, snd it was me who she withheld.

She had beautiful hair

She blames Gilligan's Island for ruining her career. She was reduced to deodorant commercials in the 1980s.

A trannie I knew years back went to same Turtle Bay gym as Tina Louise. The trans had a rocking body and was very attractive, but being young had no idea who this old woman was that kept shooting daggers and dirty looks at her each time passed at gym. One day being fed up the trans asked one of the staff who the old "scarecrow" (her words) was, and after being told all could say was "who?".

According to trans Miss. Louise looked like a gormless ancient skeleton who still fancied she was twenty-five.

This was back in 1990's which was many years ago now; so cannot imagine Tina Louise looks any better, well at least with no clothes.

I saw her in a production of DL fave, Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. This would have been the ‘90s in Ohio. She was fine, but an usher told me everyone onstage and backstage HATED her.

Tina Louise was a poor reproduction of Suzy Parker.

She was a cunt to work with.

She thought she was the "star" of Gilligan's Island.

Not a team player.

She played Julie in the first two seasons of “Dallas.”

According to Dawn Wells' book, Surviving Gilligan's Island, Louise was lied to by her agent, and signed the deal without reading the script. She was told it was "Ginger's Island" and that she was to be the star. She resented the whole thing, and later was type-cast by the role. I totally disagree with [R6] -I think she was hugely talented. She had great comedic timing, sang and danced well, and displayed a lot of versatility. That said, she was reportedly difficult to work with, and that can be the kiss of death unless you are at the peak of your career. She basically dropped out of Hollywood, when back to New York, and worked in education off and on for years. As for her present-day looks, cut her some slack. She's 86-fucking years old!

She always had that typical nose job of that era and obviously dyed red hair. What “great beauty” was there? She looked like a (dyed) red head Marlo Thomas.

[quote]I suspect she withheld her mellons

Well, we're choosy!

Because it's not Ginger's Island.

R20 What season was that?

Tina was always working. For example she starred in the movie this guy was watching

She's no Anita Morris. Really DL. Gilligan's Island? It hasn't played in reruns since before 1983, because that's when I was 5 years old. Tina Louise. Her name alone is sad.

Gilligan's Island was supposed to center around the movie star...and originally offered to Jayne Mansfield. It was later changed to center around Denver.

I had my own encounter with Ms Louis at the Vanderbilt YMCA...but I'm leaving that story for my memoirs.

I mentioned this in another thread but I saw her in a NYC hair salon sometime in the early-mid '90s. She looked skeletal, wrinkly even then, and had that long mane of red dyed hair. Some young stylist was blowdrying it to death.

My stylist later told me how everyone dreaded seeing her as she was never ever satisfied, never said thank you, etc. and was simply a bitch to all.

I remember this because I was thinking who the fuck does she think she is, this D list actress! What an ugly old cunt!

R23

There was really only one reason to see OBC of Nine; and Miss. Anita Morris was it!

Great actress, fine looking woman and one of the nicest human beings put on this earth; we lost her far too soon.

I worked with Anita on the Fox TV version of "Down and out in Beverly Hills". She played the Bette Midler role. She was a total delight,. She hated the show because it was so bad but she LOVED how much she was paid. After years of toiling on Broadway for nothing, it was wonderful to get so much money for so little work.

R23

Am not sure understand your meaning; Gilligan's Island reruns have been on television for years after 1983.

Currently MeTv is one such station.

Why does someone keep trying to make this the Anita Morris thread? Start your own thread for her. This thread is Tina's.

Tina Louise is just jealous that in countless polls when men are asked to choose between Ginger and Mary Ann, the latter is able to hold her own.

She was a scream in Stepford Wives!

I always liked Tina Louise. Here is a picture of her in 1956 at age 18 when she first gained notoriety as Appassionata Von Climax in the Broadway production of Lil Abner. What a body! She played the teen age girl friend of the much older General Bullmoose. Stella Stevens got the movie roll

She’ll be ok. Wasn’t she in 102 Dalmatians a few years ago?

Thanks, r33

She was a stone cold cunt to me

Anita Morris was hot, but so very talented. A great dancer and actress, sweet funny woman. Beautiful. THAT body. With the Stones.

Anita has a wardrobe malfunction and stops the show....

Better link.

[quote]R14 Tina Louise was a poor reproduction of Suzy Parker.

That’s [italic]DL ICON[/italic] Suzy Parker!

Well she certainly turned my crank.

[quote]Wasn’t she in 102 Dalmatians a few years ago?

No, she turned 102 a few years ago...

Tits on the Screen!

Thank you [R43] Two great chests. Aldo Ray's big hairy pecs and Tina's luscious round melons.

She was very good and frightening as the lesbian prison warden in the TV MOV "Nightmare in Badham County".

R38

Thank you for that clip!

Besides showing what a fine singer and dancer Anita Morris was, it also shows she was a true pro!

That wardrobe mishap didn't cause AM to miss a beat ; she went with it doing best she could to keep number going. The dancers were troupers as well; all damn good.

R45

Nightmare In Badham County, staring DL faves Robert Reed, Della Reese, and Tina Louise.

Remember seeing NBC on television at the time and never realized it was TL who played that lesbian prison matron.

Miss. Tina Louise didn't demean herself by doing the heavy lesbian role; that she left to others. See 1:16 in link below.

For those who've never seen, Nightmare in Badham County is worth a watch; it depicts the old prison work farms of deep south that many believed either never existed or had vanished by early in last century.

Gilligan's Island premiered i n 1964 only two years after Marilyn Monroe died. Louise is obviously doing Monroe. I wonder if Marilyn had lived would they have written and cast the Ginger character that way?

Looking at that clip Tina wore butch quite well. Looking good.

Vintage gossip circa 2004: “ Louise, Tina. Reportedly exchanging sex for the money of rich older men. "Rude and condescending to waiters."”

A friend of mine worked for a party rental company some years ago, and said she was an utter cunt and pulled the “don’t you know who I am?!” Some of the younger people didn’t. A friend’s mother knew Anita Morris and said she was the nicest lady and had sex appeal off the charts.

R51 I wouldn't lick Anita Morris twat with your tongue.

"straight down the shitter"

OP thinks it's 1995 and he's edgy. He's just an embarrassing, pathetic loser

R51 I remember that entry well. I have no idea how much of that site was true but so many of the things they said about celebrities I seriously could believe were true. They also predicted certain things about people (ie Lindsay Lohan and drugs, a few others), that weren’t yet being reported circa 2004.

I wish it were still around if only because it would be fun to read updates every year.

Wasn't Miss Tina rather long in the tooth to be turning tricks in 2004?

In "Nightmare", Tina also calls Della Reese the "n" word.

Wasn't she in the running to play Louise in the original Gypsy?

R55, you’d think. But I had read the same about Barbara Eden. There must be men who would still pay for the experience of being with Pam Anderson or whomever. It’s a fantasy, I guess.

There were gross dudes banging Lindsay Lohan and Tara Reid. While not OLD, they were certainly dirty-looking and cracked-out.

Who knows.

[quote]But I had read the same about Barbara Eden.

I have read that Barbara Eden was a call girl BEFORE she broke into show business. That makes sense.

But she was not one AFTER. But she had a much better career than Tina.

[quote] Wasn't she in the running to play Louise in the original Gypsy?

She still could. She’s about the right age to play Barbra's daughter.

[R60] -Best laugh I've had all day. Thanks!

There are two versions of Nightmare in Badham County.

One is the more sanitized version shown as that television movie, the other (from which above clips come from IIRC), was a film release ( NBC did very well in China of all places), which is a bit more gritty.

You obviously didn't see explicit lesbian action on network prime time television in 1970's, nor nudity and Chuck Connors raping some AA girl.

Can we get back to Anita Morris now?

No.

Let’s talk about my singing, instead.

R59: they're both annoying. Eden has maxed out on her experience on a crappy sitcom and a little bit other work. Louise has maxed out complaining about having been on a crappy sitcom a little bit of other work. Without dinner theater, Eden would not have had a post-Jeannie career and perhaps she could have found a way to go away. God knows what Tina Louise has been doing.

What was this so called great career Tina Louise supposedly had?

At least Anita Morris didn't have to stoop to Playboy spreads to jump start her career.

There are two types of stacked broads who become actresses. One has basically nothing but her looks with perhaps some talent, while the other has both in spades.

Like Marilyn Monroe, Jane Mansfield, Anita Morris, Suzy Parker and some others the equipment they were meted out was in addition to their other talents. Tina Louise had a respectable enough career on television because that is where she found work. If anyone thought she could carry a starring role on Broadway or in film offers would have arrived.

There is also a certain quality about above named actresses that TL just didn't have IMHO. Marilyn Monroe could turn hers off and on to point she could walk down a NYC street and no one knew who she was.

Saw TL on an episode of Cannon last week; she played a cop who worked undercover in vice that got roughed up. She was "ok" in the role but it wasn't something any other jobbing actress couldn't pull off.

R63

Really is a shame suits nixed Anita Morris from performing her number from Nine on television. Thus only those who saw or were involved with production got to see what a great performance she gave. There are a few bootleg recordings out there with a few on YT, one is age restricted while the other isn't that great.

Years ago friend was dating someone who played in orchestra for OBC of Nine, thus got to see Anita Morris warming up night after night from his spot in the pit. He said she was fantastic both as a performer and person.

That was Suzanne Pleshette, r57.

She wrote this picture book in 2007. I was at a book show where she was signing them. She wasn’t overly friendly but not rude either. There were rules about taking a picture with her. She seemed so frail and nervous. I kind of felt sorry for her. The book is pretty good.

I don't get it. If you're a fan, go get her autograph. But here is a woman who should have gone back to school and got a regular job 40 years ago. She was never talented or a star. I don't get it. She's sad and depressed and old. So you'll get another thread out of her when she dies. Why does DL have a problem with unsuccessful ex TV performers? Why can't they just go into business or waitressing or sex therapy or real estate? Tina Louise looks scary. I suspect her fans here are just as delusional about their past and present prospects as she. This scary fandom is perpetuated by the people who both worship and make fun of her. Cuz things didn't work out well. Tina had lots of decades to choose another path. Even disability would allow her more dignity and she would probably look better and act less disturbed. It's not a failure to change. Who the fuck was she anyway but a bad MM impersonation? She wasn't even a send up of that type. Just a stand in.

Dear Anita Morris troll...

[quote]There are two versions of Nightmare in Badham County. One is the more sanitized version shown as that television movie, the other (from which above clips come from IIRC), was a film release ( NBC did very well in China of all places), which is a bit more gritty.

That explains the sudden and shocking scene with Lana Wood, and moments when the movie switch to pure Grindhouse. I knew that ABC Circle films were sometimes edgier than most, but think of how many other tv movies of the same era could have been improved with some hard core inserts and extra-gratuitous violence.