Tina Louise Early, and her private life

Tina Louise (nee Blacker; February 11 1934) is an American actress, best recognized for her role as film star Ginger Grant in the CBS television show Gilligan's Island. Her stage debut came in the mid-1950s. The actress was later cast in God's Little Acre, a 1957 drama film. In this role, she won the Golden Globe Award as New Star of the year. Louise played the lead role in The Trap, The Hangman, Day of the Outlaw as well as For Those Who Think Young. She was also part of The Wrecking Crew and The Happy Ending (1975). Louise was the only original cast member of Gilligan's Island's TV series after Dawn Wells' death in 2020. Louise was born Tina Blacker in a Jewish family in New York City. When she reached four years old she had witnessed her parents divorce. Her mother Sylvia Horn (nee Myers) who was a fashion model and mother to her only child. Tina's father Joseph Blacker was a candy store owner in Brooklyn and later became an accountant. The name Louise was apparently added in her senior year of high school, when she complained to her drama teacher that she was the only girl in the class who didn't have an initial middle name. He suggested it. After high school, she enrolled at Miami University in Ohio. Louise lives in New York City. She is a life-long member of Actors Studio and an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member. Louise is a strong advocate for child literacy. In 2007, she gave away some of her book When I Grow Up. She also stated in a 2013 interview, that she has been volunteering at local schools since. She has written three books including Sunday A Memoir (1997) and When I Grow Up (2007).