This news really bummed me out. He's one of those guys that seemed eternally young to me, even though when I saw him later he was looking kind of old.
Great, stupid, fun show. There are two episodes I love... My favorite is the one where Gilligan caught a WWII mine in the lagoon. Near the end, he was paddling a boat and it was chasing him in fast motion, including right across the dirt.
The other one I loved was where they made the stuff out of clay that turned out to be plastic explosives. There was a monkey up on the roof of a hut throwing explosive dinnerware at them.
There was another funny one with a Japanese soldier who still thought it was WWII. I get the feeling in these crappy politically correct times, that one won't ever air again.