Jayne Mansfield Turned Down ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Because Of A Whirlwind Love Affair

Following that little inner voice is usually one of the most valuable pieces of advice out there—just beware whose inner voice is being heeded. Bombshell star Jayne Mansfield might have further cemented her place in the cultural zeitgeist of her era as Ginger in Gilligan’s Island had she not followed just the wrong advice she received in the midst of a romance that was messy even by Hollywood standards.

Mansfield married three times, with each marriage ending in divorce. Her relations reportedly also extended to intimate affairs with the likes of Robert and John F. Kennedy, Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli, and attorney Samuel S. Brody. But one man who allegedly stole her heart also snatched away her chance at an iconic television role.

Jayne Mansfield was entangled in a messy love life

Makeups and breakups are nothing new in Tinsel Town, and Mansfield was neither the first nor last to find another one true love. Mansfield was famous for her Golden Globe-winning acting, stunning looks, and carefully presented personal—and fashion—life, but all of it often, MeTV asserts, in the shadow of Marilyn Monroe.

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A stage production of Bus Stop might have altered the course of her career as it seemed to plateau, but it actually represented the beginning of an ending, of sorts. In the spring of 1964, the New York Times reported on Mansfield and her then-husband Mickey Hargitay appearing in Bus Stop in Yonkers Playhouse. However, MeTV reports, by that point, Mansfield was splitting from Hargitay, while her heart belonged to another: Bus Stop director Matt Cimber.

One door opening closed the door on Jayne Mansfield ending up on ‘Gilligan’s Island’

Things were serious between Mansfield and Climber. So serious, in fact, that they would be wed five months later; the main holdup was the very quiet split she and Hargitay—the father to Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay—were orchestrating. They had actually been divorced by the time that New York Times article was published but were keeping things quiet, MeTV notes, because of daughter Mariska’s birth.

Mansfield and Climber would be wed from 1964 to 1966, but it was enough time for him to influence her career—apparently for the worse.

As all this was happening, Sherwood Schwartz was working on Gilligan’s Island. The character of Ginger was initially envisioned as a “secretary,” but was then workshopped into the starlet fans are familiar with now. That meant recruiting someone who fit that illustrious vision.

When it came time to cast for Gilligan’s Island, none other than Mansfield was offered the part of Ginger. Marilyn Monroe might have been a contender, but she was actually earning the ire of some studios, opening the field wide for Mansfield to fill the void. Only, Climber talked her out of it. The book The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols claims, “[t]aking Cimber’s bad advice, Jayne rejected the role of Ginger.”

Whatever Mansfield as Ginger might have looked like, audiences never got to find out, and tragically, three years after Gilligan’s Island premiered, Jayne Mansfield died in a horrific car crash, leaving behind Mariska with a memory and a scar.