Natalie Schafer

Intro

Natalie Schafer became widely recognized as Lovey Howell, wife of millionaire Thurston Howell III, in Gilligan's Island. Long before that television comedy, however, she had worked on Broadway and in films opposite performers including Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr. Her career continued across theatrical comedy, dramatic supporting parts, television guest roles and animated versions of the island characters. The gallery combines two images from her film years with a photograph at a benefit in 1990, giving a view of the actress beyond the familiar castaway costume.

Career snapshot

Schafer was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on November 5, 1900. Her Broadway credits begin with Eleanor Stafford in Trigger in 1927. Later stage assignments included Alison Du Bois in Lady in the Dark and Sylvia in The Doughgirls during the early 1940s. She continued to return to the theatre, playing the Leading Lady in the 1955 revival of Six Characters in Search of an Author and Beulah Moulsworth in Romanoff and Juliet in 1957. These casting records document a long stage career before and alongside her better-known film and television work.

The entry point

In Marriage Is a Private Affair, released in 1944, Schafer played Mrs. Irene Selworth, mother of Lana Turner's character Theo. The MGM publicity photograph here places Schafer at left and Turner at right. AFI notes that the two later played mother and daughter again in the television series The Survivors. The film photograph therefore records a professional association that resumed many years later. It also shows the sort of socially established supporting character that appears repeatedly in Schafer's screen filmography, well before Mrs. Howell brought that comic identity to a much larger television audience.

Screen identity and style

Dishonored Lady supplied another role in 1947: Ethel Royce, a former colleague of the magazine editor Madeleine Damien, played by Hedy Lamarr. The retained frame from that film is identified by its source archive as public domain through nonrenewal. Schafer's other film parts included Edith Potter in Secret Beyond the Door, Queenie Sorenson in Female on the Beach and Millie Opdyke in Forever, Darling. AFI's filmography also lists her later appearances in 40 Carats and The Day of the Locust. These are separate characters and productions, rather than extensions of the television role for which she is most often remembered.

Collaborations and patterns

Gilligan's Island ran from 1964 to 1967, with Schafer's Lovey paired with Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III. The stranded couple's assumptions about wealth remained part of the show's comedy even when money could do little to change life on the island. Schafer returned for Rescue from Gilligan's Island in 1978, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island in 1979 and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island in 1981. She also voiced Lovey in animated adaptations. Those returns extended the character's life well beyond the original sitcom's network run.

Era reflection

Her television work was not confined to the island. Guest appearances included I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Brady Bunch and The Love Boat, and she also worked in daytime serials. A different aspect of her legacy is documented by the Entertainment Community Fund, formerly The Actors Fund. Its history records that her estate left more than $1.5 million to the organization and that a wing of its home was named in her honour in 1993. That institutional record connects her career to continuing support for other entertainment professionals.

Legacy and rediscovery

Schafer died on April 10, 1991. Alan Light's photograph at an AIDS Project Los Angeles benefit in September 1990 records one of her late public appearances and is retained here with its Creative Commons credit. The two earlier film images and the benefit photograph are distinct sources, not alternate crops of one portrait. Together they span the period from studio supporting roles to the years after Gilligan's Island had become a durable part of television culture. Her stage record, film credits and charitable bequest preserve a broader professional history than a single well-loved character can convey.

Selected screen roles

• Lady in the Dark: Alison Du Bois — 1941 Broadway
• Marriage Is a Private Affair: Mrs. Irene Selworth — 1944
• Dishonored Lady: Ethel Royce — 1947
• Gilligan's Island: Lovey Howell — 1964-1967
• Rescue from Gilligan's Island: Lovey Howell — 1978

A career in pictures

Two distinct film images and an Alan Light benefit photograph span 1944, 1947 and 1990.

Dishonored Lady (1947)

Ethel Royce

Natalie Schafer in a frame from the film; source archive identifies public-domain status through nonrenewal.

Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944)

Mrs. Irene Selworth

Natalie Schafer at left and Lana Turner at right in MGM publicity.

AIDS Project Los Angeles benefit (1990)

Public appearance

Natalie Schafer in Los Angeles, September 1990; photo by Alan Light.

Rewatch notes

• She and Lana Turner played mother and daughter in both Marriage Is a Private Affair and The Survivors.
• The Actors Fund named a wing in her honour in 1993.