Biography

Nancy McCarthy is best known for her role as "Bunny" in the original TV pilot of "Gilligan's Island" and is also recognized from her many TV appearances during the 1960s.

Nancy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University, with a BFA in Drama in 1959. She is married and lives outside of California.

She first appeared in the TV series "Surfside 6" and went on to appear in "Lock Up", "The Donna Reed Show", "Adventures in Paradise" and "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis". She also had a recurring role on "My Three Sons". In 1963 actor Bob Denver suggested her for his new series called "Gilligan's Island". She appeared as Bunny, the blonde secretary on the original black and white pilot episode entitled "Marooned." However, the creator and producer, Sherwood Schwartz, after many network problems, decided to change three of the characters and recast them.

She was also cast in a spin off pilot of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" called "Zelda" starring Sheila James, but the premise never got it on the air. Another TV pilot, "The Peter Lorre Playhouse", where she played a flapper ghost, was also not produced. McCarthy appeared in several live TV plays produced in New York City including "Moment of Fear" with Robert Redford, Macdonald Carey and Nina Foch on the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" series.

She made her New York stage debut in 1959 as Dixie Evans in Clifford Odets' "The Big Knife" at the Seven Arts Playhouse which starred Carroll O'Oconnor and was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. She played Flirt in "Dark at the Top Of the Stairs" with Sylvia Sydney at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts and in Los Angeles she played the role of Maggie, the Marilyn Monroe character in Arthur Miller's play "After the Fall".
- IMDb mini biography by: Al Kirschman

Was in the original unaired pilot episode of Gilligan's Island before it was recast and given to Dawn Wells. Also, her character was originally called Bunny, not Mary Ann.