Denny Miller

Denny Miller was an actor perhaps best known for his recurring role as scout Duke Shannon on the TV western Wagon Train, as well as guest-starring appearances on Gilligan's Island. Miller was also noted for being the first blond Tarzan, when he played the iconic character in the 1959 film Tarzan, the Ape Man, a remake of the 1932 classic.

The athletic 6-foot-4 Miller was considering a career as a basketball or football coach when he was discovered by an agent on Sunset Boulevard. His first screen test, directed by Hollywood legend George Cukor, resulted in a movie contract with MGM.

Miller appeared in more than 100 episodes of Wagon Train from 1961 to 1964. On the big screen, he played a similarly western-themed character as “Wyoming” Bill Kelso in the 1968 Peter Sellers comedy The Party, directed by Blake Edwards.

Miller was also seen in dozens of other TV shows, including Have Gun — Will Travel, The Rifleman, The Fugitive, Hawaii Five-O, I Dream of Jeannie, The Brady Bunch, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Rockford Files, Ironside, Battlestar Galactica, Barnaby Jones, Charlie’s Angels, Dallas, Magnum, P.I. and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. In addition, for more than a decade he donned the famed yellow raincoat as the Gorton’s Fisherman in the seafood company’s commercials.

Miller died September 9, 2014, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was 80.