And yet she’s the last one standing.
Indeed. It’s why a lot of actors who have been on a successful show or movie or two – particularly sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero stuff – but aren’t “A-list” actors, wind up doing the fan convention circuit. They didn’t necessarily make a ton of money from the popular show/movie, and while they may still be working actors, that may mean that they get a couple of small roles a year; convention appearances wind up being a pretty important (and reliable) income for them.
Possibly because of that, Shatner and Nimoy were never as regular on the Trek convention circuit as their co-stars were.
I find it hard to believe that Bob Denver resented being typecast as a “goofy guy” after getting his start by playing Maynard G Krebs* on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. What’s he gonna do, take up classical theatre? 
*The “G” stood for “Walter,” after his aunt. It was “silent.”
Don Adams who played Maxwell Smart in the Get Smart spy series was generally unsuccessful later.
Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies, wound up typecast as a handsome lunkhead. He initially dealt with it by moving behind the camera, to directing and producing, and later, went into various business ventures; he had very few acting roles after The Beverly Hillbillies ended, and he apparently hasn’t done any acting at all since the early '90s.
Don’t forget that Tina Louise was a member of the Actors’ Studio. A serious actor in a model/centerfold body. She always seemed to trying to be trying to get better roles than she was offered. Becoming typecast as “Ginger” was the crowning touch.
Anyone else keep thinking of Galaxy Quest?
You’ve got Tim Allen: “I love the fans of the old show!”… and Alan Rickman: “I played Richard III. There were five curtain calls. I was an actor once, damn it. Now look at me. Look at me!”
Pretty much!
I’m acquainted with an actor who was one of the stars of a very popular TV show in the 1980s (ranked in the top 20 shows for six years and the top 10 for two years). But he was strongly typecast by that role. I once asked him how he felt about it. He said that that role was the only reason he had any enduring clout in the business; he was able to direct, write scripts for other shows and produce his own plays for years afterwards solely because he appeared in that show. He said that role was the best thing that ever happened to him, regardless of the typecasting.
It’s alluded to in the OP!
My wife and I are “playing” Trivial Pursuit (Baby Boomer edition) at tea. We alternate asking each other questions until one of us fills up the pie. For some reason, there are a ton of questions about Dobie Gillis, and neither of us has ever seen an episode. We are both late boomers (she is probably Gen-x), so it’s a much harder game for us than the genus edition.
I was born in 1955, and my favorite TV show from 1962 to '67 was Combat! Guess which series was the lead-in on Minneapolis’s KSTP at six o’clock? Dobie Gillis. For five years, my world pretty much centered around watching those two every Tuesday night (with McHale’s Navy coming on at 19:30).
Some of the high school/college material might have gone over my head at the time, but I dearly loved the show. (My mother hated it, as was her wont.) I especially liked Bob Denver as Maynard G Krebs and thought it must be cool to be a beatnik without a care in the world.
Yea, I dunno. She seems bitter in subsequent interviews. Seems to have given up after GI. I genuinely feel bad for her.
He probably could have retired on his Get Smart earnings if not for his gambling problem.
I agree. A career in acting is very difficult and depends on a lot of luck, even if you have talent. There’s plenty of actors who would be happy to be offered one type of role, rather than not be offered any roles.
She didn’t give up after Gilligan’s Island. She appeared in several movies, some television movies, and guest spots on television shows but wasn’t able to really break into something bigger. Was she typecast? I don’t know. A lot of beatiful people fail to really break it big in Hollywood.
Re: Tina Louise
WTF? Have you checked her post-GI credits? - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001481/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_in_0_q_tina%20louise
GI ran from 1964-67. Ms. Louise has credits for every year after that until 1991 and usually more than one per year. Work became a little more sporadic in the '90s, likely the result of her having been typecast since GI and over 50.
I heard her doing the voiceover in a commercial for something or other. You can’t not recognize her voice. Being in Ghosts probably gave her a shot of exposure and opened some opportunities for her.
There’s a difference between being typecast and continuing to work as a certain type of character and finding it hard to get work because you can’t shake one particular role. Vincent Price had no problem with being typecast. It allowed him to have steady work and the financial stability to pursue his other interests. Others wind up falling into that bad category of famous and poor.
And even then you had to keep an eye on things. James Garner had to sue a studio to get the earnings he was due for The Rockford Files. As I recall, the studio packaged TRF and Quincy (a show the studio owned all the rights to) together for syndication. Stations bought the package so that they could show Rockford, but only half the money was credited toward Rockford and its rights holders.
As luck would have it, I happened to be reading the IMDb trivia for Cleopatra today. Apparently that movie took ten years to start making a profit, at which point the studio closed the books on it so that anyone who was owed a share of the profits would be out of luck. Hollywood accounting can be creative, and not in a good way.