'The Love Boat' Cast: Where Are They Now?
'The Love Boat' cast
The Love Boat was a fan favorite for nine seasons (it aired from 1977 to 1986), and it's not too hard to understand why: The cast of the beloved series made every episode fun, and tuning in each week was like checking on family members who were off on their latest adventure.
That feeling of family was real for the cast, too. Ted Lange, who played bartender Isaac Washington, told Breakfast Television in 2015, "I had done a television series where not everybody in the cast liked each other. So, the great thing about The Love Boat was we all loved each other. We all protected each other."
"We all thought each other was funny. So, we really had a wonderful time working together," he added.
Read on for a look at where the cast of The Love Boat is now.
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Where is the cast of The Love Boat now?
Gavin MacLeod (Captain Merrill Stubing)
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Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
MacLeod played the captain of the crew for the entire run of the series. Before joining the show, he starred on The Mary Tyler Moore Show for several years.
MacLeod stayed connected to the sea after The Love Boat ended, moving on to on become an ambassador for Princess Cruises. He was also the Honorary Mayor of Pacific Palisades, California.
He died in May 2021 at the age of 90.
Bernie Kopell (Adam "Doc" Bricker)
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Photo by Paul Archuleta/Getty Images
Kopell was well known to audiences when he joined The Love Boat as the ship's doctor, having already enjoyed roles on That Girl and Get Smart. However, viewers quickly began to identify him as Doc, and the actor was best known for his time on the show.
Kopell continued to work in TV in the years after The Love Boat ended, enjoying guest spots on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Charmed and Grey's Anatomy. Now 90, he last appeared in an episode of The Lincoln Lawyer in 2022.
Fred Grandy (Burl "Gopher" Smith)
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Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Grandy already had a few roles on shows like Maude and Welcome Back Kotter when he made his Love Boat debut. But after the latter show ended, his life went in a brand new direction: Grandy was elected to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives for his home state of Iowa, where he served from 1987 to 1995.
Grandy, now 75, has continued to act here and there, and has had roles on The Mindy Project and General Hospital.
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Ted Lange (Isaac Washington)
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Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Lange was a theater actor before he joined the team as the boat's bartender, making his Broadway debut in Hair.
Also an accomplished writer/director, Lange wrote the screenplay for 1977's Passing Through and also wrote six episodes of The Love Boat while starring on the show. In 1987, he directed 10 episodes of the series The New Gidget.
Lange, now 76, returned to The Love Boat in 2022 when he joined the cast of the reality series The Real Love Boat on CBS.
Lauren Tewes (Julie McCoy)
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Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Princess Cruises
Tewes was famously cast only days before the pilot of the show was shot, and beat out at least 100 other actresses for the role of cruise director Julie McCoy. As many fans may remember, though, Tewes was replaced in the 7th season of the show while she battled addiction.
Tewes, now 70, took her ousting as an opportunity to recover and build. She went back to school to become a cheese specialist and currently works at a catering company.
Jill Whelan (Vicki Stubing)
Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Whelan, who broke out as a child star with the movie Airplane! (1980), played Captain Stubing's daughter on The Love Boat, joining the show in its third season at the age of 11. (She also joined forces with Nancy Reagan as a spokesperson for the First Lady's "Just Say No" drug campaign around the same time.)
The up-and-comer continued to act after The Love Boat ended, with small parts over the years in shows like Martin, The Young and the Restless and Criminal Minds, but her career took many turns away from the screen, most recently with her 2013 move to the improv and podcast worlds. She co-hosts The Brian and Jill Show, on which she and co-host Brian Phelps share their improvisational comedy.
