http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...ailure-89.html

Best known for playing the Professor on Gilligan's Island, actor Russell Johnson has died.

Russell passed away from kidney failure at his home in Washington state on Thursday morning at the age of 89.

He appeared in all 98 episodes of the TV series, which aired from 1964 to 1967.

Following his death, his wife spoke to ABC News.

'He died at home, peaceful, in his sleep at 5:21 am today,' she said. '(He was) a very brave guy who knew what he wanted, and he wanted to be at home.'

Russell gained fame as one of the seven castaways marooned on an uncharted island on the 1960s television series.

The Professor was known for supplying the shipwrecked passengers with generators and other scientific contraptions, though he was never able to find a way to get off them off the island.

Before Gilligan's Island, Johnson had appeared in dozens of films and television shows, including Gunsmoke and The Twilight Zone.