What happened to the actors of 'The Love Boat'?

For 9 years (1977-1986), the Pacific Princess sailed through everybody's TV screens. On the luxurious cruise, many passengers boarded and left, but a small group of crew members always remained.

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'The Love Boat' was an original family comedy with romantic hints that stole the audience's hearts. Many years have passed, and things have changed: What happened to the members of that famous crew?

The captain of the ship was Merrill Stubing, the father figure of everyone on board. A very stylish guy, he looked so good as a captain that he was part of different cruise advertisements.

Gavin MacLeod's acting career started in 1958 with the movie 'I Want To Live!'. Before starring in 'The Love Boat', he was in films like 'The Sword of Ali Baba' (1965), 'A Man Called Gannon' (1968), and 'Kelly's Heroes' (1970).

However, his success came from television. He played Joseph 'Happy' Haines in 'McHale's Navy' (1962-1964), and Murray Slaughter in 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' (1970-1977), for which he was nominated two times for a Golden Globe. But his most famous role was the one of Captain Merrill Stubing (1977-1986) for which he was nominated for the Golden Globes on 3 occasions.

What happened to him after 'The Love Boat'? It was the end of his acting career. In the '80s, MacLeod became a devoted believer of the Evangelist Church and spent his time sharing God's word. He published a book with his wife about marital relations and alcohol and hosted a show about married life for 14 years. In 2021, at 90, MacLeod passed away.

Captain Merrill Stubing was the male lead of the show, but the female lead of 'The Love Boat' was Julie McCoy, the (PR) director of the Pacific Princess cruise.

She started in theater and moved to the small screen with sporadic characters in famous shows like 'Charlie's Angels' (1976) and 'Starsky & Hutch' (1977). They were the prelude to the role of her life: Julie in 'The Love Boat'.

The actress was part of the main cast from the beginning of the show in 1977, but, in 1983, she was replaced by the actress Pat Klous. In 1986, she came back, but by then, the end of the show was very near.

The reason why Lauren Tewes left the show was her drug addiction. Reportedly, in 1983, Aaron Spelling fired the actress because she had revealed to Variety that she was an addict.

Although her addiction left a shadow hanging over her career, her participation in 'The Love Boat' allowed Tewes to continue working in the industry. We were able to see her in shows like 'The fugitive: The Chase Continues' (2000-01) and in plays like 'My Fair Lady'.

Recently, she has worked as an actress on the radio, with 'Imagination Theatre.' In 2020, she played Maxine Murdoch in the comedy-mystery show 'Murder and the Murdochs'.

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The doctor was a faithful companion of Merrill Stubing and a ladies' lover. Adam Bricker was one of the most iconic characters in the show. His role as the doctor in 'The Love Boat' was so famous that he even did a cameo in the 'Prince of Bel-Air' as a doctor operating on Will Smith in a nightmare.

His role in 'The Love Boat' as well as that of Conrad Sigfried in 'Get Smart' (1965-70) were the most important roles of his career.

Although he had worked as a taxi driver and a vacuum salesman in the past, Kopell ended up being one of the most famous TV personalities of the 60s and 70s. And although his career continued after 'The Love Boat,' he would never enjoy the same amount of popularity as the famous cruise doctor.

After the show, he participated in different movies like 'Missing Pieces' (1992), 'Land of the Free' (1998), 'The Cutter' (2005), 'Get Smart' (2008), and even the last 'Sharknado' movie where he played the role of Captain of a ship! Kopell recently appeared in 8 episodes of 'B Positive' (2020-21) and also guest starred in an episode of 'Grey's Anatomy' in 2022.

Burl Gopher Smith was the purser of the Pacific Princess, the officer responsible the documentation of the passengers and the ship's cargo.

The actor graduated in English Philology at Harvard in 1970 and three years later started acting in the show 'Love, American Style'. It was the beginning of a career that would peak in 1977 when he joined the cast of 'The Love Boat'.

Fred Grandy remained in the show — working in other movies and shows as well — until its end in 1986. Then, he decided to quit acting and fully commit to politics, a career he'd begun at the beginning of the '70s.

In 1986, as a representative of the Republican party, Grandy earned a seat in the United States House of Representatives for Iowa. He was there until 1995. Since then, his career as a politician ended, and began his role as CEO of the company Goodwill Industries from 1995 until 2000.

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From 2003 to 2010, Grandy and radio veteran Andy Parks were the hosts of the interview show, 'The Grandy and Andy Morning Show'; Grandy was also the presenter of a TV show called 'Daily Café'. He has sporadically returned to acting and has appeared in 'Law & Order' (2003), 'The Mindy Project' (2014-2017), 'General Hospital' (2017), and 'Side Hustle' (2021).

The character of Julie McCoy was substituted in a mysterious way. Judy McCoy, sister of Julie, was the character who took on the role of director of the cruise. As we have mentioned, Lauren Tewes left the series due to her substance addiction.

Pat Klous was a biologist and psychologist who Mark Carliner recruited in the 70s - along with other two models, Connie Sellecca and Katherine Witt - for the cast of the CBS show 'Flying High'. She worked there in 1978 and 1979.

After that first step in the industry, she would work in the shows 'A Man Called Sloane' (1979), 'The Dukes of Hazzard' and 'Aloha Paradise' (1981). They all led her to her role in 'The Love Boat' where she appeared from 1984 until the end of the series in 1986.

However, after that, her acting career went downhill. The last time we could see Pat was on an episode of 'Murder, She Wrote' in 1987, where she played the role of Clare Henley.

He was the one in charge of the drinks of the cruise bar. A sympathetic guy who was hard to miss by the crew or the passengers. He was the barman that everybody wanted on their cruises.

Ted Lange's career began quickly when he participated in three movies: 'Trick Baby' and 'Blade' in 1973 and 'Black Belt Jones' in 1974. However, he became really known for his role as Junior in the show 'That's My Mama' for 39 episodes.

His greatest hit came in 1977 with the show 'The Love Boat'. His role as the barman Isaac Washington during 246 episodes made him a TV star. As a fun fact, Lange also wrote and directed some of the episodes of the show.

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Since then, his career as an actor hasn't stopped, but with lesser-known roles. The actor has sporadically starred in episodes of several famous shows like 'Family Matters', 'L.A. Heat', 'Scrubs', 'Drake & Josh' and 'General Hospital' (reuniting with Fred Grandy).

It's also worth mentioning his career in theater. The actor wrote and directed the play 'George Washington's Boy', based on real events. It tells the story of the relationship between the first president of the United States and an African-American slave.

In 2006, he was part of the reality show, 'Celebrity Fit Club', and in 2022, he appeared in 'The Real Love Boat', a CBS show hosted by Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn, where single people search for love on board a real ship.

Victoria Stubing was the (adoptive) daughter of Captain Merrill Stubing. Vicki was the youngest character in the cast and the actress started on the show at just 11 years old!

Her first acting role was at 8 years old in an Oakland local production of 'The King and I'. Ater her appearance in the brief show 'Friends' (not the same as the 90s sitcom!), the actress was cast as Vicki in the most famous TV cruise ever.

In the '70s, we could see Jill Whelan in other shows like 'Fantasy Island', 'Vegas', 'Trapper' and 'Airplane!', but in the middle of the '80s, the actress decided to abandon her acting career to become the event's producer at Madison Square Garden.

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In 1999, she became the producer of the LA channel, KCOP and the presenter of different radio shows. She also participated in TV shows like 'The Weakest Link'. It is important to mention that she joined the Nancy Reagan movement against substance abuse, 'Just Say No', and that she was married three times —the last time in 2017 with the Denver Broncos quarterback, Jeff Knapple.

The Golden boy of the Pacific Princess was the photographer in charge of catching the best memories of the passengers on board.

Ted McGinley has had an interesting career in the industry. He started working as a publicity model but soon was offered the chance to act in the series 'Happy Days' where he appeared in 61 episodes from 1980 to 1984.

In the midst of all that, he had the opportunity to work in his first movies and become Ashley Covington Evans for 60 episodes of 'The Love Boat'.

Apart from 'The Love Boat', you may also remember McGinley from the iconic series 'Dynasty' (he appeared there from 1986 to 1987) and 'Married... With Children', where he starred in 167 episodes from 1989 to 1997.

Besides marrying the actress Gigi Rice, and having two children together, McGinley kept busy acting. You may have seen him in 'Pearl Harbour' (2001) and in some episodes of 'The Mentalist' (2012) and 'Castle' (2014). In 2023, he appeared in the series 'Shrinking' and 'Platonic.' So he's still going strong!

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