While standards and practices of the 1960s would’ve prevented the Gilligan’s Island
characters from sparking up a joint on the screen, it seems that there were two big stars
from the series that had a penchant for smoking marijuana.
Those stars were Dawn Wells and Bob Denver, both of whom were arrested for possession
of the substance later in their lives.
Bob Denver was the first of the two to be arrested for possession of the substance,
and, upon his arrest, he accidentally let spill the beans that longtime friend and former
costar Dawn Wells had been the one that had provided it to him!
Join Facts Verse as we explore why Dawn Wells was arrested years after Bob Denver ratted
her out.
Bob Denver Was Arrested for Marijuana Possession In the late 1990s, former Gilligan’s Island
star Bob Denver was back in the headlines as a result of a marijuana arrest.
Shortly after what would end up being the star’s last official television appearance
in 1998, he was arrested after an ounce of marijuana was sent to his West Virginia home.
Postal workers in Pueblo, Colorado, had apparently become privy to the ounce of marijuana being
shipped to Bob’s residence and notified the authorities.
When the ounce finally made its way to Bob’s home, it wasn’t long before the police came
knocking on his door.
Upon their subsequent search of the television actor’s residence, the police found an ounce
of marijuana and then some.
The police reportedly confiscated around an ounce and a half of marijuana in total from
Bob’s residence, plus the corresponding paraphernalia.
Knowing Bob Denver, one can imagine that the television star was pretty shaken up by having
his house raided.
Perhaps this was why he accidentally let spill the beans early on in the proceedings that
his former Gilligan’s Island costar Dawn Wells may or may not have been the one that
sent him the ounce of marijuana in the mail.
When Bob accidentally let the beans spill, the police became incredibly interested.
They attempted to get Bob Denver to testify against his longtime friend and former costar,
but Bob wasn’t having any of it!
When the beloved former Gilligan’s Island star became privy to the fact that the police
were trying to turn him against Dawn Wells, he changed his story.
Bob Denver refused to testify against Dawn Wells, and the police were forced to crack
down on the television star.
Bob was 63 years old at the time, and, thankfully, didn’t have to do any jail time.
However, he did end up having to do six months of probation.
In addition to this punishment, Bob’s story of marijuana possession was also treated as
tabloid fodder.
Although most of the public wasn’t that judgmental about marijuana use by that point
in history, the debacle likely didn’t do much for the television star’s well being.
It’s not surprising to learn that Bob never made another official television appearance
following the arrest, though he didn’t publicly claim that he was remorseful about the incident.
Did Dawn Wells Give Bob the Marijuana?
Of course, it’s not certain that Bob Denver was telling the truth to the authorities about
having received the ounce of marijuana from Dawn Wells.
The star very well could’ve mixed up his words and ended up telling the truth on the
stand.
However, the fact that Dawn Wells herself was arrested for marijuana possession many
years later suggests that there may have been some weight to Bob’s accidental insinuation
to authorities that Dawn Wells was some kind of marijuana supplier in the West Virginia
area.
Bob Denver ended up passing away in 2005, at the age of 70.
A few years after his death, Dawn Wells would be subject to her own arrest for marijuana
possession.
Dawn’s arrest occurred in 2007.
Following the arrest, the television actress ended up having to do a stint in jail that
lasted for nearly a week before she was released on probation.
As with Bob Denver before her, Dawn’s period of probation lasted for six months.
However, unlike Bob, Dawn attempted to fight the charges as much as she could.
Whereas Bob Denver had been repentant and attempted to make right with the authorities
without selling out his friend and former costar, Dawn Wells claimed that the marijuana
she was found in possession of wasn’t hers.
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The Story of Dawn’s Arrest Dawn Wells was arrested for marijuana possession
in February of 2007.
While she ended up serving five days in jail and six months of unsupervised probation,
it wasn’t actually marijuana possession that she was convicted of.
The television actress had been charged with possession, as well as driving under the influence.
As it turns out, her aforementioned legal battle had been at least somewhat successful,
even if it hadn’t managed to get her off completely.
As a result of Dawn challenging the charges, she ended up accepting a plea that saw her
plead guilty to one simple count of reckless driving.
It was this reckless driving conviction that then became the catalyst for the actress’s
subsequent six months of probation, not the marijuana possession itself.
According to Dawn Wells and her lawyer, the marijuana that she had been found in possession
of wasn’t hers.
Instead, she claimed it belonged to a friend.
Dawn’s arrest occurred while she was driving home from a surprise birthday party that had
been held for her by some friends.
According to the policeman who ended up pulling her over, the actress was swerving outside
of her lane and accelerating and decelerating at a strange place.
Of course, both of these were clear signs that she may have been under the influence.
Understandably, the actress was pulled over and her car was searched.
Upon the policeman approaching the window of Dawn’s car, he could allegedly smell
the stench of marijuana protruding from it.
He immediately asked where the marijuana smell was coming from, to which Dawn cleverly replied
that she had just picked up and dropped off some hitchhikers.
According to the actress, as soon as she had dropped the hitchhikers off, they had lit
up something that she didn’t recognize the smell of.
Not wanting to get in trouble, she quickly let them be.
The policeman was hesitant to believe 68-year-old Dawn Wells’ story of the hitchhikers and
proceeded to search the television actress’s car.
Upon searching, the policeman found a couple of joints that had been partially smoked,
as well as two cases that had been used for marijuana storage.
This was enough for the policeman to bring Dawn back into the station, where she proceeded
to fail a sobriety test.
Dawn Claimed the Marijuana Wasn’t Hers All of the attendees that had been at Dawn
Wells’ preceding surprise party had claimed that the actress was completely sober when
she left.
In addition to these claims, her lawyer managed to put together a pretty convincing argument
that the marijuana cases had been left in the actress’s car by a friend.
In order to explain the fact that Dawn was swerving out of her lane, as well as accelerating
and decelerating suspiciously, her lawyer claimed that Dawn had been attempting to figure
out the heater controls on her new car.
Dawn served her five days in jail and six months of probation and lived the remainder
of her life in relative peace until her 2020 death.
The actress worked consistently on television over the course of her lifetime and in the
years leading up to her death, with her last appearance being in a 2019 episode of Netflix’s
The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants.
While Dawn was a hard worker over the course of her life who rarely ever took it easy,
she remained best known for her role as Mary Ann Summers on Gilligan’s Island.
Although she worked consistently in the years leading up to her death, it seems that the
caliber of work wasn’t always enough for the actress to effortlessly support herself.
Dawn Wells’ Life Following Her Arrest In 2018, only a few years before her death,
Dawn Wells garnered some attention as a result of a GoFundMe page that had been created in
her honor.
The page claimed that Dawn was in need of money to pay for her medical bills after a
fairly serious fall.
Magically, fans managed to come together to give the television star the money that she
needed.
However, that money wouldn’t be enough to keep the actress going for very long.
A few years after this successful GoFundMe and shortly before the actress’s 2020 death,
it would be revealed that she suffered from dementia.
While Dawn’s dementia seriously affected her health during the last years of her life,
it ended up being complications related to COVID-19 that finally did the actress in.
Dawn Wells was single at the time of her death and had only ever been married one time over
the course of her lifetime.
Dawn’s only husband was a talent agent by the name of Larry Rosen, whom she was married
to for several years during the 1960s.
The two never had any children, and Dawn never remarried after the pair’s 1967 divorce.
One might assume that Dawn may have been lonely as a result of her never having kids or remarrying
after her first divorce, but she was kept from loneliness by her plethora of close friends.
This roster of close friends included Bob Denver!
Dawn Wells remained close with the majority of her former Gilligan’s Island costars,
and it seems that the actress and Bob Denver were good friends up until the latter’s
2005 death.
If Dawn ever got mad at Bob for accidentally letting her name slip after his 1998 arrest,
she never let it show!
Though Bob Denver claimed that the ounce of marijuana that he was found in possession
of in 1998 didn’t actually come from Dawn Wells, and Dawn Wells claimed that the marijuana
she was found in possession of in 2007 wasn’t actually hers, it seems pretty obvious that
both of these Gilligan’s Island stars had a penchant for smoking the illicit substance!
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Bob Denver claimed that Dawn Wells
sent him an ounce of marijuana in the mail and that Dawn Wells was later arrested for
allegedly driving while stoned?
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