The castaways on “Gilligan’s Island” sure had a hard time getting off the island, but the actor playing a gorilla on the CBS sitcom had no trouble getting to outer space. The man inside the monkey suit also had several roles in “Star Trek.” It would be inaccurate to say that Janos Prohaska became a familiar face on American TV in the ’60s, considering he was in costume for most of his performances, but the Hungarian actor and stuntman was prolific.
Born in Budapest in 1919, Prohaska played an alien and a chimpanzee on “The Outer Limits,” the titular primate in the “Perry Mason” episode “The Case of the Grinning Gorilla,” and a white gorilla in “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.” Prohaska made his own costumes, having been forced to do so because he couldn’t find an ape suit that fit him properly at 5’4″ and weighing 140 pounds.
“First, I make costume of nylon but was no good,” Prohaska told TV Guide. “Too stiff, too heavy, too fire-danger.” He made one for $300 out of rubber, leather, and yak hair. Despite being a tropical island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles away from Africa where gorillas live, the great ape appeared a lot on the classic sitcom. In the Season 1 episode “Diamonds Are an Ape’s Best Friend,” Prohaska’s gorilla becomes enamored with Mrs. Howell’s perfume. The gorilla returns (sometimes as a frenemy to Gilligan) three more times, and Prohaska even played an orangutan in Season 3.
Janos Prohaska recycled his old costumes to make Star Trek aliens
Janos Prohaska was a part of “Star Trek” from the beginning. In the pilot episode “The Cage,” an uncredited Prohaska played both an apelike and birdlike alien. He also appeared in “The Devil in the Dark,” one of the best episodes of “Star Trek,” as the Horta. Producer Robert Justman told him that if he designed an alien creature that was interesting enough, they could write an episode around it, and he was impressed with the egg-laying alien. However, the costume wasn’t a bespoke, original creation for “Star Trek.” It was actually a modified version of a creature he’d played in “The Outer Limits.”
He reused an old costume for another “Trek” appearance. The Mugato, a horned white gorilla who appears in “A Private Little War,” was the same albino ape suit he’d used on “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.” He simply added a horn. His last appearance was in “The Savage Curtain,” playing the Excalbian alien Yarnek (though Bart La Rue provided the voice).
The star continued working after “Star Trek” ended. His later roles included playing gorillas in “Land of Giants,” “Bewitched,” and the film “Escape From the Planet of the Apes,” along with bears in “Here’s Lucy” and “Dusty Trail” – the latter of which was a Western rip-off of “Gilligan’s Island” that also starred Bob Denver.
Prohaska died in a plane crash along in 1974 while working on a TV series called “Primal Man.”
