1. Jim Backus starred in his own show of one season, The Jim Backus Show, known as Hot Off the Wire.
24 Facts About Jim Backus
1. 2.
An avid golfer, Jim Backus made the 36-hole cut at the 1964 Bing Crosby Pro-Am tournament.
3.
Jim Backus was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
4.
Jim Backus was born February 25,1913, in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Bratenahl, Ohio, an East Side suburb of Cleveland located on the Lake Erie shore, surrounded by the city on three sides.
5.
Jim Backus was the only son of Russell Gould Backus and Daisy Taylor Backus.
6.
Jim Backus attended Shaw High School in East Cleveland, Ohio and graduated from University School in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
7.
Jim Backus was acting on radio as early as 1940, playing the role of millionaire aviator Dexter Hayes on Society Girl on CBS.
8.
Jim Backus had an extensive career and worked steadily in Hollywood over five decades, often portraying characters with an "upper-crust", New England-like air, much like his best-known role, Thurston Howell III on Gilligan's Island.
9.
Jim Backus made television appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies.
10.
Jim Backus was the voice of the nearsighted cartoon character Mr Magoo.
11.
Years later, when Jim Backus was a frequent talk show guest, he would recount the time Marilyn Monroe urgently beckoned him into her dressing room.
12.
Jim Backus came home one night during the filming and told me that Miss Monroe in her most seductive breathy voice asked him to meet her in her dressing room.
13.
Jim Backus's curiosity got the better of him and he went.
14.
Jim Backus starred on the short-lived variety program The Jim Backus Show on the ABC Radio Network in 1957 and 1958, when that network changed its name to the American Broadcasting Network and tried out a "Live and Lively" format of "Big Time Radio" with orchestras and audiences.
15.
Jim Backus costarred in the comedy show I Married Joan from 1952 to 1955, portraying the husband of Joan Davis.
16.
Jim Backus appeared as Thurston Howell III on Gilligan's Island for all three seasons of its run, 1964 to 1967, and later in reunion TV films, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island.
17.
Jim Backus voiced the character in two cartoon versions of the series, The New Adventures of Gilligan from 1974 to 1977 and Gilligan's Planet from 1982 to 1983.
18.
Jim Backus had a role in the final season episode "The Hustler" in which he plays Mike's boss, Mr Matthews.
19.
Jim Backus played Reverend Sims in the 1975 "Brides and Grooms" episode of Gunsmoke.
20.
Jim Backus appeared in "Never Con a Killer", the pilot for the ABC crime drama The Feather and Father Gang.
21.
Jim Backus played the voice of God in the recording of Truth of Truths, a 1971 rock opera based on the Bible.
22.
In Bowl 'Em Over with GE Bulbs, a Cinecraft Productions sales training film made for the GE Large Lamp Division, Jim Backus introduces the Mr Magoo Soft White light bulb TV advertising campaign for Fall 1963.
23.
Jim Backus was spokesman for La-Z-Boy furniture during the 1970s.
24.
On July 3,1989, Jim Backus died in Los Angeles from complications of pneumonia after suffering from Parkinson's disease for many years.