Remembering Dawn Wells In Westerns

The C&I crew would like to extend condolences and warm wishes to the family, friends and fans of Dawn Wells, who died Wednesday in Los Angeles of causes related to COVID-19. She was 82.

For generations of television viewers. Wells will always be known best as the sweetly perky Mary Anne Summers on the enduringly popular sitcom Gilligan’s Island. But C&I readers likely will also remember her guest-starring roles during the Golden Age of TV Westerns. She appeared in such series as Cheyenne, Maverick, Wagon Train, Tales of Wells Fargo and The Wild Wild West — and played a fetching young woman who intrigued Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts) in “The Way Station,” a 1962 episode of Bonanza that also featured Robert Vaughn.

In 1975, Wells did double duty as co-star and narrator for Winterhawk, an independently produced sleeper hit directed by Charles B. Pierce (Greyeagle, The Town That Dreaded Sundown). The movie, about a Blackfoot chief (Michael Dante) who resorts to desperate measures to save his tribe in 1845 Montana, was praised by critic Roger Ebert as “a traditional western, simply and well told, almost old-fashioned in the clarity of its narrative.” The unusually strong supporting cast included Denver Pyle, Woody Strode, Lief Erickson, Elisha Cook Jr. and L.Q. Jones.