Tina Louise, real name Tatiana Josivovna Chernova Blacker, was born in New York, New York, and began studying performing in her late teens. Louise’s mother was a well-known fashion model, and her father (Joseph Blacker) owned and operated a confectionery business in Brooklyn. He would eventually work as an accountant. Tina apparently added the name “Louise” during her senior year of high school. She’d told one of her theatre professors that she didn’t have a middle name and that she was the only person she knew who didn’t. Louise was a name suggested to her by her theatre teacher. Louise attended Miami University in Ohio after graduating from high school. Louise began pursuing her own modelling career after graduating from college.
Career
Louise went on to have a highly successful modelling career, appearing on the covers of Adam Sir!, Modern Man, and Playboy. Louise got her first job at the age of two after being spotted/discovered in an advertisement for her father’s confectionery store. Louise began studying acting, singing, and dancing at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan when she was 17 years old, under the great Sanford Meisner.
Louise made her acting debut in the Bette Davis vehicle/musical “Two’s Company” in 1952. She has appeared on Broadway in various shows, including “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac,” “The Fifth Season,” and “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” She made her Broadway debut in the musical “Li’l Abner” in 1957. Louise has made several successful TV appearances on such series as, “Studio One” and “Appointment with Adventure”. Louise went on to feature in “God’s Little Acre” on the big screen.
Louise was honoured by the National Art Council in 1958, an organisation that dubbed her the “World’s Most Beautiful Redhead” with distinction. The next year, Louise co-starred in “Day of the Outlaw” with Robert Ryan. Louise earned her stripes as a leading woman by supporting actors Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark. Despite her gorgeous beauty, Louise frequently portrayed melancholy roles. Louise made a point of declining reprise roles in film versions of “Li’l Abner” and “Operation Petticoat,” which lost her credits. During the gap, she took both Broadway roles and Italian film roles. “The Siege of Syracuse,” directed by Pietro Francisci, and “Garibaldi,” directed by Roberto Rossellini, are two Italian film credits. “Garibaldi” (1960), directed by Roberto Rossellini, documents Garibaldi’s efforts to unite Italian nations during the 1860s.
Louise returned to the United States and began studying under another great acting guru, Lee Strasberg. Louise became an active and enthusiastic member of the acclaimed Actors Studio. In an episode titled “Grandpa Pygmalion,” Louise appeared as a guest star in the comedy “The Real McCoys” in 1962, playing a farm girl from West Virginia. Louise again co-starred with Bob Denver in the beach party film “For Those Who Think Young” two years later.
In 1964, Louise would make a detour from the Broadway musical “Fade Out – Fade In” in order to portray a movie star character named Ginger Grant for a fledgling sitcom called “Gilligan’s Island”. Jayne Mansfield famously rejected down the part before Louise was offered it and eventually took it.
Louise would grow uncomfortable and unsatisfied with the role over time, fearing that it had done her harm by typecasting her. Perhaps she was correct; once “Gilligan’s Island” ended in 1967, Louise was unable to rehabilitate her career and begin substantial film work since those kinds of roles were no longer accessible to her.
Louise would continue to perform in cinema and television, making multiple guest appearances. However, Louise would continue to allege that playing Ginger in “Gilligan’s Island” had damaged her film career. As a result, Louise would not make another appearance as Ginger, not even in following “Gilligan’s Island” movies, which included “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island”, “The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island”, as well as “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island”. Louise would return to the big screen in 1969 in the Matt Helm spy parody “The Wrecking Crew,” as well as in 1975 in “The Stepford Wives,” opposite Dean Martin.
Louise tried multiple times to escape her humorous reputation by taking on darker film parts. Louise, for example, appeared as a heroin addict in a 1974 episode of Kojak. In the 1976 made-for-TV film “Nightmare in Badham County,” she portrayed a prison officer. Other TV appearances include “Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby” in 1976, “SST: Death Flight” in 1977, “Friendships, Secrets, and Lies” in 1979, and the serial opera “Dallas” in 1978 and 1979.
Net Worth
Tina Louise is a $6 million dollar net worth American actress, novelist, and singer. Louise is most known for her portrayal as the fiery redhead Ginger Grant on “Gilligan’s Island.”
