Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, there was an actor who racked up an impressive number of credits, and chances are you’re very familiar with his work even though you don’t know his name and likely have never even seen his face. That’s because Janos Prohaska made a career out of playing animals while wearing full-body suits. Most famously, he appeared as the gorilla who occasionally tormented the castaways on “Gilligan’s Island,” but his career goes much further than that.
Prohaska was a stuntman from Hungary who got his first onscreen animal credit on the show “Riverboat” playing Koko the ape. From there, he spent the next 15 years playing gorillas, apes, and bears on shows like “The Munsters” and “Perry Mason,” including five appearances on “Gilligan’s Island,” which could have been more if “Gilligan’s Island” hadn’t been abruptly canceled.
As talented as Prohaska was at imitating real-life animals, his body of work went far beyond that. He also made multiple appearances on “Star Trek” playing various types of aliens, and he made appearances on “The Outer Limits” and “Lost in Space” as other out-of-this-world creatures. In all, he’d go on to earn nearly 40 acting credits without ever revealing his face. Sadly, his career came to an end when he and 30 other people involved in the production of “The Primal Man” were killed in an airplane crash.
Prohaska was known for getting very into character
Janos Prohaska built a reputation as someone willing to dress up as just about anything. In addition to his recurring role on “Gilligan’s Island,” he also made 13 appearances on “The Andy Williams Show” as Cookie Bear. On “Bewitched,” he played a bear, a gorilla, and a dodo bird. And in the series “It’s About Time,” he played the Giant Cuckoo-Wuckoo Bird. When it came to his time on “Star Trek,” he even created his own creature for “The Devil in the Dark,” widely considered one of the best episodes in the “Star Trek” franchise.
Assistant director Robert Justman, who worked with Prohaska, said he was a “nice, quiet and rather shy person” until he put his costume on. In an issue of “Star Trek: The Magazine,” Justman revealed that Prohaska got carried away during an audition for “The Outer Limits.” “He came in to audition and demonstrated some very interesting moves. He sprang from the floor … onto a chair, and then sprang further up to perch on the top surface of a tall filing cabinet,” he said. “On this occasion, a female secretary entered the office. Janos, now gone completely ape, launched himself upon the unsuspecting victim … and simulated an attempt at getting to know her better.”
Prohaska earned the nickname “The Great Janos” in Hollywood after being cast in so many different parts, despite not being able to be land a speaking role due to his heavy Hungarian accent.
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