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Dobie Gillis Actor Dwayne Hickman Dead At 87

Dwayne Hickman, the actor and network T.V. executive who, despite multiple accomplishments throughout his life, would always be recognized fondly by an era of baby boomers for his role as Dobie Gillis, has died at 87.

Hickman died of Parkinson’s disease on Sunday at his residence in Los Angeles, according to a declaration from a family spokesperson, B. Harlan Boll. He was surrounded by family members when he died, it said.

Hickman went on to appear on other T.V. shows and in movies and to flourish behind-the-scenes professions as a publicist, talent booker for a well-known Howard Hughes-owned casino in Las Vegas, and T.V. programming executive for C.B.S., he could never escape his public connection to Dobie.

Oh, my gosh — it’s Dobie Gillis! I grew up with you!” former President Clinton told him when the two faced each other while Clinton was governor of Arkansas.

Now it’s nice,” Hickman, who was also a successful painter, told a reporter during an exhibition of his work in St. Louis in 2003. “It’s very sweet to see how much Dobie Gillis meant to a lot of baby boomers, who are always nice when I meet them.”

His autobiography, co-written with Joan Roberts Hickman, his wife, was published in 1995. It was titled “Forever Dobie.”

Hickman had small roles in movies and T.V. shows as a youngster but had given up acting by 1950 to focus on his studies at Los Angeles’ Cathedral High School. After graduation, he joined Loyola University.

“I was in the art program and was heading toward architecture when I got a call from my old agent toward the end of my freshman year,” he remembered in a 2003 interview. “He said he had a role for me in ‘The Bob Cummings Show.'”

Hickman went on to play Chuck MacDonald, the teenage nephew who attempted to get a bit of his Uncle Bob’s action as Cummings’ Bob Collins character worked as a photographer of glamour girls. Hickman, meanwhile, resumed his studies on the side, ultimately earning a degree in economics from Loyola.

The Bob Cummings Show” (later called “Love That Bob“) prevailed from 1955 to 1959, and toward the end of its run, Hickman made a pilot for author Max Shulman about a lovelorn 16-year-old named Dobie Gillis who followed, but could never win the heart of, almost every girl he saw.

“The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” characterized by solid humor and a brilliant young cast that included Bob Denver, Warren Beatty, and Tuesday Weld, was an instant hit when it debuted in 1959.

The chief contradiction is that Dobie never gets the girl,” Hickman once said. “His is a false aggressiveness; everything he attempts in life backfires and pushes him into last place.” As an outcome, Hickman’s Dobie would often spend a part of the show standing in the facade of a copy of the statue of Rodin’s “The Thinker,” philosophizing about his awkward efforts at life and love.

As “Dobie Gillis” continued until 1963, and Hickman’s and Denver’s characters aged, viewers witnessed them go from high school to college, as well as to a brief, bumbling stint in the U.S. military.

After the T.V. show wrapped in 1963, Hickman went on to perform in such films as “Cat Ballou” with Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin and such popular 1960s youth-oriented pictures as “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini,” “Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine” and “Ski Party.” Although his acting career slowed in the 1970s, he continued to appear in such T.V. shows such as “The Mod Squad,” “Love, American Style” and “Clueless.”

After his acting career restricted in the 1970s, Hickman became talent director at Hughes’ Landmark Hotel and worked ten years as a program director at C.B.S., overseeing such series as “M.A.S.H.,” “Dukes of Hazzard,” “Maude” and “Designing Women.”

Dwayne Bernard Hickman, brother of veteran character actor Darryl Hickman, was born May 18, 1934, in Los Angeles. He started acting at age 6, following his older brother.

He was married three times: to Carol Christensen, 1963-1972; Joanne Papile, 1977-81; and Joan Roberts, whom he married in 1983 and who survives him. Hickman and his first wife had a son, John, and he and his third wife had a son, Albert.

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Carisa Kissane

Update: 2024-05-18