Remembering Russell Johnson and Dave Madden

Two actors with roles on innocent television shows of yore, died on the same day. Both Russell Johnson and Dave Madden are worth remembering.

Johnson who died at 89 was most famous as “The Professor” on “Gilligan’s Island.”  He often noted the Professor’s simultaneous genius and failure (i.e. inventing amazing things but an inability to fix the hole in the boat for rescue).

I always knew Johnson had more “in the tank” than “The Professor,” clearly he had intensity.

This manifested when he played a man who goes back nearly 100 years, to try and warn that President Abraham Lincoln will be assassinated on an epic “Twilight Zone” episode.

Dave Madden, who died at 82,  played “Reuben Kincaid” on the “Partridge Family.”

His character was the agent, who managed the family band, and he supposedly did not like kids. Yet his softness and care for the family did shine through.

Danny Bonaduce, whose mercenary “Danny” character “dueled” with Dave’s “Reuben,” credits Madden for being a father type figure, who helped him a great deal.

Of course those times and shows hid so much of the stark reality that is life. However, I always felt both Johnson and Madden had a certain genuine warmth and that each was not only a success on “innocent” television, but a viable talent elsewhere as well.

Russell Johnson

Dave Madden