Alan Hale Jr. (born Alan Hale MacKahan; March 8, 1921 – January 2, 1990) was an American actor and restaurateur.^[1] He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr.^[1] His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead role as Captain Jonas Grumby, better known as The Skipper, on the 1960s CBS comedy series Gilligan's Island (1964–1967),^[1] a role he reprised in three Gilligan's Island television films and two spin-off cartoon series.

Hale appeared in more than 200 films and television roles from 1941. He appeared primarily in Westerns, portraying the Sundance Kid in The Three Outlaws (1956) opposite Neville Brand as Butch Cassidy, performing with Kirk Douglas in The Big Trees (1952), Audie Murphy in Destry (1954), Ray Milland in A Man Alone (1955), Robert Wagner in The True Story of Jesse James (1957), and Hugh Marlowe in The Long Rope (1961). He also appeared in musical comedies opposite Don DeFore in It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), James Cagney in The West Point Story (1950), and Judy Canova in Honeychile (1951). He also appeared on several talk and variety shows.

Alan Hale MacKahan was born in Los Angeles California. His father was character actor Rufus Edward MacKahan,^[1] who used the stage name of Alan Hale, and his mother was silent film actress Gretchen Hartman.^[1] His father appeared in more than 235 films and had a successful screen career, both as a leading man in silent films and as a supporting actor in sound movies.^[2] Hale Jr. was in the silent movies as a baby.

Hale served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II.^[3] He dropped the "Junior" from his name after his father died in 1950.^[4]

In 1931, Hale made his Broadway stage debut in Caught Wet. The play opened on November 4 and closed later that month. He made his screen debut in Wild Boys of the Road which was released in 1933. Although his role was deleted from that film's final release, he still received screen credit for his performance.^[5] He later appeared in roles in To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), Yanks Ahoy (1943), Sweetheart of Sigma Chi (1946), and When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950). During the late 1940s and early 1950s, he frequently appeared in Gene Autry films and also had a recurring role from 1950 to 1952 on The Gene Autry Show.^[6]

By the early 1950s, Hale began to work in television. In 1952, he landed the starring role in CBS's Biff Baker, U.S.A.. The series was canceled in 1954. He continued his career on the small screen by appearing in guest spots on a variety of other series, such as The Range Rider (five times), Annie Oakley, Fireside Theater, Frontier, Matinee Theater, Fury, Northwest Passage, and The Man from Blackhawk.

The year 1957 proved to be an especially busy one for Hale on television series. In addition to performing the role of Shawnee Bill on the Western Wanted Dead or Alive, he played a folksy rancher, Les Bridgeman, in "Hired Gun", an episode of the ABC/Warner Brothers series Cheyenne. Later that year Hale landed another starring role in the syndicated television series Casey Jones, which lasted for thirty-two half-hour episodes before its cancellation in 1958. Then, from 1958 to 1960, he was cast in a recurring role on Rory Calhoun's CBS Western The Texan. Hale also returned to the series Cheyenne in 1960 to portray the character Tuk in the episode "Road to Three Graves".

Throughout the early 1960s, Hale continued in guest-starring roles on episodes of Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Rawhide, The Real McCoys, Mister Ed, Green Acres, Assignment: Underwater, Hawaiian Eye, Adventures in Paradise, Lock Up, The Andy Griffith Show, Lassie, Tales of Wells Fargo, Route 66 and 2 episodes of Hazel. He was featured in two episodes of Perry Mason, first as murderer Lon Snyder in the 1961 episode "The Case of the Unwelcome Bride", and then in 1963 as Nelson Barclift in "The Case of the Bouncing Boomerang".

Despite his growing commitment to roles on television, Hale throughout the 1950s and into 1960s continued his work in supporting roles in feature films. Some of those include The Gunfighter (1950) with Gregory Peck, At Sword's Point (1952) with Cornel Wilde and Maureen O'Hara, The Man Behind the Gun (1953) with Randolph Scott, Silver Lode (1954) with John Payne and Dan Duryea, The Sea Chase (1955) with John Wayne and Lana Turner, The Three Outlaws (1956) with Neville Brand as Butch Cassidy and Hale as the Sundance Kid, The True Story of Jesse James (1957) with Robert Wagner as Jesse James and Jeffrey Hunter as Frank James, Up Periscope (1959) with James Garner and Edmond O'Brien, Thunder in Carolina with Rory Calhoun (1960), The Long Rope with Hugh Marlowe (1961), Bullet for a Badman (1964) with Audie Murphy and Darren McGavin, Advance to the Rear (1964) with Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens, and Hang 'Em High (1968) with Clint Eastwood.^[6]

Hale was married twice; his first marriage was on March 12, 1943,^{[3][better source needed]} in Hollywood to Bettina Reed Doerr, with whom he had four children: Alan Brian, Chris, Lana, and Dorian. The couple later divorced.^[4][9] In 1964, Hale married former singer Naomi Grace Ingram, to whom he remained married until his death.^[10][11]

Hale died on January 2, 1990, of thymus cancer at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 68. His body was cremated, and his ashes were sprinkled into the Pacific Ocean.^[2][12] His Gilligan's Island co-star Dawn Wells was in attendance, representing the surviving members of the cast.

For his contribution to the television industry, Alan Hale Jr. has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6653 Hollywood Boulevard.^[13]