Aw, crap. Makes me sad.
I never met Russell, but I have a strange, wonderful, surreal story about him. He spent these past decades living up on Bainbridge Island, where my mother lived, off the coast of Seattle. Yes, the Professor lived on an island.
I would go up to visit Mom and my many cousins who also live on the island, and every now and then I would see Russell in town (at a restaurant or shop, etc.). It's not a big island.
One Christmas, there was a really bad blizzard (which was rare up there), and on the day I was leaving to go back to Los Angeles, I got on the ferryboat to make my way back to Seattle (a 30-minute ride), and there was Russell Johnson sitting two tables away from me in the cafeteria area. There were only about 20-30 people on that boat (usually there are hundreds).
Suddenly, the boat started rocking and the waves were really high. It was cold enough that the waves would splash up on the windows (about 30 feet!) and freeze the moment they hit the glass. It was weird and more than a bit scary.
But as we were rocking and being told to take our seats over the intercom system, all I kept thinking was "The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed ..."
Here I was on a small boat in the middle of the water during a storm with the Professor from Gilligan's Island. It was not a good sign ... but it did make me laugh.
Incidentally, they cancelled all remaining boats that day after we left the island. Ours was the last one off before the big storm hit.
But I will always remember my boat ride with the Professor that Christmas.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
