The Love Boat Stars Who Sadly Passed Away

Along with legendary TV producer Norman Lear, no single person was more responsible for shaping television during the 1970s and '80s than Aaron Spelling. His list of TV hits is a long and impressive one, including "Charlie's Angels," "Dynasty," "Fantasy Island," "Melrose Place," and hit teen drama "Beverly Hills, 90210" (in which he famously cast his daughter, although Aaron Spelling had one strict rule for Tori Spelling when he cast her in "90210").

During that era, one of Spelling's most enduringly popular series was "The Love Boat," which set sail in 1977 and cruised through the ratings for 10 successful seasons. Set on the Pacific Princess cruise ship, "The Love Boat" took an anthology-style approach by focusing on the stories of its ever-changing roster of passengers, portrayed by an new batch celebrity guest stars in each episode. These celebs ran the gamut, from up-and-coming television stars of the day, to long-in-the-tooth Hollywood stars in the twilight of their careers. It speaks volumes about the show's popularity that iconic pop artist Andy Warhol even made an appearance on the show.

As the years have passed since the series ended its run, most of the core cast — who played the crew of the Princess — are still with us. Sadly, many of the guest stars who made repeated appearances on the show are not. In their honor, read on to remember "The Love Boat" stars who sadly passed away.

For 10 seasons, Gavin MacLeod headed the crew of the Pacific Princess in the role of Captain Merrill Stubing. That was MacLeod's second iconic TV role, having previously portrayed news writer Murray Slaughter on all seven seasons of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

MacLeod continued to pursue his acting career after that, guest-starring in such disparate projects as sitcom "The King of Queens," Disney Channel comedy "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," and HBO's gritty prison drama "Oz." However, it's fair to say that Captain Stubing cast a long shadow. Not only did he revive the character in a 1990 "Love Boat" television movie, and in a short-lived 1998 TV reboot "Love Boat: The Next Wave," MacLeod also served as global ambassador for Princess Cruises. In 2013, he published his memoir, "This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith and Life." As MacLeod explained in an interview with Cruise Critic, he understood the show's potential immediately. "I knew right away it would be a hit," he said, and explained why. "They all had happy endings," he said of the way each episode concluded, "and I love happy endings."

In his later years, MacLeod embraced Christianity; he and his wife, Patti, hosted "Back on Course" for the Trinity Broadcasting Network, interviewing couples who'd endured difficulties in their marriages yet had managed to remain together. MacLeod died in 2021 at the age of 90.

While the dark secrets of the "Brady Bunch" cast are many, what isn't a secret is that Florence Henderson will always be best remembered for playing mom Carol Brady on the beloved TV sitcom. One aspect of the untold truth of Florence Henderson is that she was the most frequent guest star on "The Love Boat," appearing in a record-setting 10 episodes over the course of the series' run. "The set was great fun," she told Entertainment Weekly.

Interestingly, in nearly all of those episodes she portrayed a different character. Henderson's experience with the show dates back to the pilot, in which she played a woman fantasizing about divorcing her husband. After that, she played various characters. These included a few appearances as country singer Annabelle Folker, and in a meta episode from the series finale, she reprised Carol Brady alongside her "Brady Bunch" hubby Robert Reed, as passengers on the Princess (interestingly, she and Reed also appeared in the same episode in Season 7, but as different characters in separate storylines). "I played so many wives, I'm trying to remember all the people I married," Henderson recalled. "Shecky Greene, Don Adams, Bert Convy ... there had to be many more. If you find out, lemme know."

Henderson continued to work well into her golden years, and remained a working actor up until her death in 2016 at age 82. Her final project — the 2017 comedy feature "Bad Grandmas" — was released posthumously.

From 1972 until 1978, Rue McClanahan played neighbor Vivian on hit sitcom "Maude." She subsequently reunited with that series' star, Bea Arthur, for what became an even bigger hit: "The Golden Girls," which aired from 1985 until 1992. In the years between those two successful TV comedies McClanahan appeared in nine different episodes of "The Love Boat" over the course of five seasons. In each season, McClanahan portrayed a different character — one of those characters, in fact, appeared in four episodes during the fourth season.

McClanahan returned to the Pacific Princess in 1998, as a guest star on "Love Boat: The Next Wave." Interestingly, she portrayed an entirely new role, rather than reprising one of the characters she'd previously played.

McClanahan continued acting in the years that followed; in fact, her final screen credit was in a 2009 episode of sitcom "Meet the Browns." She died not long after that in 2010 at the age of 76.

Erin Moran appeared in nine episodes of "The Love Boat," guest-starring in the fourth, seventh, eighth and ninth seasons. In total, the erstwhile star of "Happy Days" (and, far more briefly, the disastrous short-lived spinoff "Joanie Loves Chachi") played four different characters over the course of those nine episodes.

Despite her high-profile role on one of television's hottest sitcoms, in Moran's case, "Happy Days" did not pave the way for a successful future acting career. After a few guest-starring appearances in the late 1980s (she appeared in both "Murder, She Wrote," and "Diagnosis: Murder"), acting roles became few and far between. After her first marriage ended in divorce in 1993, later that year she remarried, tying the knot with Steven Fleischmann. In 2010, financial difficulties resulted in the couple's home going into foreclosure, and they moved into an Indiana trailer park with her husband's mother, where Moran served as caretaker for her ailing mother-in-law. By 2012, Moran and her husband were reportedly kicked out of the trailer park, and were reduced to staying in cheap motels. Reports began surfacing about Moran's odd behavior, with claims of excessive partying and alleged drunkenness.

Sadly, Moran died just a few years later in 2017 at the age of 56; her cause of death was revealed to be cancer. As Fleischmann subsequently revealed, what Moran initially believed to be tonsillitis was actually squamous cell carcinoma. By the time she was diagnosed, the cancer had spread aggressively, and her condition deteriorated quickly.

Jessica Walter was a somewhat ubiquitous presence on television during the 1970s. In addition to roles in such series as "Columbo," "McCloud," "Barnaby Jones," and "McMillan & Wife," she was also no stranger to viewers of "The Love Boat." In fact, Walter wound up appearing in eight episodes, playing six different characters over the course of six seasons.

She went on to become a series regular in cult comedy "Dinosaurs" in the early 1990s, and then experienced a late-in-life career resurgence in the decade that followed. It all began when she was cast as wealthy matriarch Lucille Bluth in "Arrested Development," a critically acclaimed comedy that became a pop-culture sensation. Then, in 2019, she lent her distinctive voice to animated FX espionage comedy "Archer," playing Malory Archer, super-spy mom of the series' protagonist Sterling Archer. She continued to voice the role for more than a decade.

In 2021, Walter died at 80, with her work on "The Love Boat" — and, to be fair, pretty much everything else she'd done — eclipsed by "Archer and "Arrested Development." Yet through it all, even all those guest-starring roles that comprise the bulk of her 160-plus screen credits, Walter was renowned as the consummate actor, equally adept at comedy, drama, television, movies, and theater. "I mean, honey, you name it, I've done it," she once declared in an interview with Elle.

For Arte Johnson, his big break came thanks to two words: "Laugh-In," the late-'60s television phenomenon that used comedy to bring the counterculture into the mainstream via network television. Part of a cast that included Goldie Hawn, who transformed into a superstar, Johnson was a standout thanks to his ability to portray numerous diverse characters, ranging from a stereotypical dirty old man to a German soldier who hadn't figured out WWII had ended, creating a catchphrase by uttering, "Very interesting."

Despite that early success, "Laugh-In" proved to be the high point of his Hollywood career, although he continued to work regularly in the decades after that. One of his many post-"Laugh-In" gigs was "The Love Boat," in which Johnson portrayed eight different characters in eight episodes. As Johnson explained in a 1972 interview, his skill at creating numerous diverse characters was something that came to him naturally. "I work best when I have a false nose, a false mustache, an odd costume, a piece of hair, a bone through my nose," he observed. "Give me some odd, weird thing and that's me."

In the years that followed, Johnson gravitated toward voice acting, becoming a sought-after star in numerous animated series. Johnson died in 2019, aged 90. 

Even though she racked up nearly 90 screen credits, Audra Lindley will always be best known for playing sex-starved Mrs. Roper on mega-hit TV sitcom "Three's Company." She and co-star Norman Fell (who played spouse Stanley Roper) exited the show after three seasons in order to star in their own spinoff, "The Ropers." Unfortunately, the show proved to be a spectacular failure, cancelled after its second season.

During that period, Lindley became a frequent passenger on the Pacific Princess in eight episodes of "The Love Boat." In the years that followed, Lindley remained a familiar presence on television as a guest star, appearing in TV series ranging from "Matlock" to "Murder, She Wrote," and even appeared in an episode of "Friends" — and was decidedly not one of the actors to regret starring on "Friends."

An actor's actor, Lindley continued working until shortly before her death in 1997, passing away at age 79. It speaks volumes of both her love for the craft and her versatility as an actor that in the final year of her life Lindley managed to appear in a feature film ("The Relic"), a made-for-TV movie ("Sisters and Other Strangers"), and two TV series, the sitcom "Cybill," and drama "Nothing Sacred."

After launching his acting career in the 1950s, Ted Knight had a busy but undistinguished Hollywood career until he was cast as his best-known role, dimwitted anchorman Ted Baxter on beloved television hit "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." After that show ended its run in 1977, Knight became one of many stars to guest star on "The Love Boat." 

Knight apparently enjoyed the experience, ultimately appearing in eight episodes. During the fourth season, he portrayed the same character in four episodes: Tom McMann, who's been engaged to his fiancée (Rue McClanahan) for a decade but is reluctant to put a ring on it. In subsequent seasons, he portrayed lottery winner Barney Gordon, and Captain Gunner Nordquist, a rival to Captain Stubing in a storyline that delighted fans of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" by reuniting former co-stars Knight and Gavin MacLeod.

In 1980, Knight scored a major big-screen hit with "Caddyshack," the iconic golf comedy in which he held his own with such comedy greats as Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Rodney Dangerfield. That same year, he also landed his own hit television series, with "Too Close for Comfort," running until 1983 until being picked up to run in syndication for three more seasons. In 1985, Knight was diagnosed with cancer, with the disease progressing quickly. He died in 1986 at age 62.

Few stars have been as synonymous with Broadway as Carol Channing, who first appeared on the Great White Way back in 1941. Her biggest success came in 1964, with the title role in "Hello, Dolly!" Channing was so identified with the role that she starred in a 1978 revival, and another in 1995. Also in 1995, the Tony Awards honored her with a lifetime achievement award.

While the stage remained Channing's primary focus, she did manage to make her mark on television. Among the various series in which she appeared was "The Love Boat," guest-starring in seven episodes. Unlike other actors to make frequent voyages on the Pacific Princess, Channing did not portray multiple characters, but played the same role in all seven episodes: Aunt Sylvia, aunt of the ship's cruise director Julie McCoy (played by Lauren Tewes). Arguably Channing's most impressive appearance on the show was in a fifth-season episode in which Aunt Sylvia starred in a lavish production number alongside fellow Broadway veterans Ann Miller, Della Reese, and Ethel Merman. "I also enjoyed working on 'The Love Boat' with Annie, Ethel and ... um ... oh, Della. She is a reverend now," Channing recalled during an interview with Broadway World. "Ethel and I rode into the studio together and little Annie was so funny."

In the years after that, Channing appeared as a guest star in various TV series, including "The Drew Carey Show," "Touched by an Angel," and "The Nanny," playing herself in all — she even voiced an animated version of herself in a 2006 episode of the Fox animated comedy "Family Guy," her final screen role. Channing was 97 years old when she died in 2019.

Best known for big-screen roles in Mel Brooks comedies including "Spaceballs" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," Dick Van Patten was a familiar face to TV viewers of the 1970s and '80s, primarily from his role as Tom Bradford, family patriarch in "Eight is Enough." He was also a veteran of "The Love Boat," appearing as a guest star in six episodes. Van Patten portrayed a different role in each, ranging from a congressman to a magician dubbed the Great Stellini.

Interviewed by the Television Academy, Van Patten recalled the time he played a villain in one of his "Love Boat" guest spots. "['Love Boat' producer] Aaron Spelling said, 'You're always playing nice guys, goody-goody guys, I'm gonna have you play a wife beater,'" said Van Patten, whose role called for him to physically attack co-star Rue McClanahan, cast as his spouse. According to Van Patten, while he pretended to hit her, one of his fake blows accidentally struck McClanahan's face. "Oh god, it was awful," he remembered. "She still hasn't forgiven me."

Interestingly, Van Patten's association with "The Love Boat" went far deeper than mere guest star; in the first of three "Love Boat" pilots, he played the ship's doctor (the role was later recast, with Bernie Kopell playing Dr. Adam Bricker throughout the series' run). When Van Patten died at age 86 in 2015, he'd accumulated an impressive 170 screen credits.

As half of folk-pop duo Sonny & Cher, Sonny Bono and then-wife Cher hit the charts with such hits as "The Beat Goes On" and "I Got You Babe," before catapulting to even bigger stardom on television with their top-rated variety show, "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour." When the pair divorced, they each launched solo variety shows — which never hit the same level of success, leading them to reunite as divorced exes on the poorly received "The Sonny & Cher Show," cancelled in 1977 after two seasons. While his ex-wife embarked on a successful singing and movie career — just one chapter in the untold truth of Cher — Bono wound up guest-starring in various TV series, including "The Love Boat."

All told, Bono guested in five episodes, including one in which he played an Alice Cooper-inspired rock star named Deacon Dark. However, Bono recognized his showbiz career was ebbing; as he told Vanity Fair, "Doing 'Love Boat' guest shots meant you're either on your way in or you're on your way out." 

Seeing the writing on the wall, Bono pivoted by opening a restaurant in Palm Springs. That led him to a tussle with the local government — which ultimately resulted in his 1988 election as the city's mayor. He then mounted a successful run for Congress, and in 1994 he was elected as the representative for California's 44th Congressional District. Re-elected in 1996, he died in January 1998 in a tragic skiing accident. He was 62.

Betty White began her career in television during the medium's infancy, and went on to become one of its most enduringly popular stars. A quick wit, fast on her feet with a funny quip, she became a fixture on TV game shows, while also playing two iconic — albeit very different — characters on beloved TV sitcoms: man-hungry TV cooking show host Sue Ann Nivens on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and ditzy widow Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls."

Among White's numerous TV credits are five episodes of "The Love Boat." In her first appearance on the show, she and real-life husband Allen Ludden played spouses. In her other four episodes, she played a different character, Betsy Boucher, best friend of Carol Channing's Aunt Sylvia character.

In the decades after that, White remained a force to be reckoned with, displaying her considerable comedy chops in various films (including the Ryan Reynolds-Sandra Bullock rom-com "The Proposal") and another hit sitcom, "Hot in Cleveland," which ran from 2010 to 2015. White died in 2021 at age 99, just a few weeks before she would have celebrated her 100th birthday.