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Tina Louise - why wasn't she a bigger star?


https://www.datalounge.com/thread/18553568-tina-louise-why-wasn-t-she-a-bigger-star-

Seems like Hollywood was grooming her for the big time at one point.

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She won a Golden Globe for her role in 'God's Little Acre' (1958) and did a bunch of other B-rated flicks. She dabbled in a bunch of stuff: Broadway, Italian cinema, an album of her singing classic like "Embraceable You." Even wrote 3 books.

According to her, Gilligan's Island ruined her career and typecast her as a goofy sit-come sexpot. I'm not sure why she didn't take off as a mega star...she had a bunch of false starts, including a character on Dallas (which was HUGE in it's hey-day.) and soap operas.

Personally, having watched her movies, I think she is only a so-so actor. She's a member of The Actors' Studio and studied with some great people, but she just never had the chops to become a superstar. Still, a perfectly decent and consistent life for her craft. That's my 2 cents anyways.

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Because she wasn't a very good actor?

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Her portrayal of Ginger took talent, though she made it look easy. They would not have cast her if she could not carry it off. I think she is a competent actor, but her failing was due to her attitude, so it goes. If she played the game better and was more cooperative, I think she would had been a bigger star. Actually, she did significantly more TV and films (other than Jim Backus, maybe) than any of the other cast members after Gilligan's Island. She also shined on camera.

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I remember hearing she was difficult and would act like a big star before becoming a big star. Never works in any industry.

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She played a cop on an old episode of Cannon and I thought she was pretty good.

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She was on Dallas for a milisecond as Jr’s mistress. I think he threw her out a window. Her acting style was campy, more suited to comedy and soap operas.

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"Tina Louise - why wasn't she a bigger star?"

Why would she be?

There is nothing special about her. There is a sea of gorgeous humans in Hollywood.

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Julie Newmar wasn't a Big Star and she seemed far more talented than Mz Blacker.
Tina Louise wasn't even all that great looking if you took away the make-up.
Probably great looking if you knew her in person, but not striking by Modeling standards.
She seemed more a Mannequin people could make up to be what they wanted her to look like.

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Whether or not she had a lot of acting talent, she definitely was "all that great looking", with or without makeup.

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I'm not here to attempt to bring Ms Louise down in any way, but I did see an episode of I think it was Bonanza, but maybe some other oater, and she was a put upon farm femme, and I was surprised what a not made up TL looked like, and she looked rather non-distinct.
But again, I have no animus toward the woman. Hopefully she was happy with her career and had great supports around her.

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