Jill Whelan Remembers Late “Love Boat ”Costar Gavin MacLeod: 'He Loved Food More Than Probably Anything'

The former child star said at a cast Q&A on the Enchanted Princess ship that she and her on-screen dad had "a really special bond and a special chemistry"

• Love Boat stars Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange and Jill Whelan set sail on Princess Cruise’s Love Boat Celebration at Sea that left out of Brooklyn, N.Y. on Saturday, Aug. 31, and traveled through New England and Canada

• The cast remembered their late costar Gavin MacLeod during a cast Q&A on board the Enchanted Princess

• Whelan said that she and her on-screen dad had "a really special bond and a special chemistry"

When The Love Boat stars Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange and Jill Whelan reunited on the Enchanted Princess to kick off Princess Cruise’s Love Boat Celebration at Sea on Saturday, Aug. 31, in New York City, they had a purser, a bartender and a doctor, but no captain. That’s because Gavin MacLeod — who played the captain on board the Pacific Princess, a real Princess Cruises ship at the time of The Love Boat's airing — died in 2021 at age 90.

“He is such a fine actor, truly a gifted, full of range actor,” Whelan, 57, said on Sunday, Sept. 1, during the Love Boat Legacy: Original Cast Reflections Q&A with Grandy, 76, Kopell, 91, and Lange, 76, and moderator Jim Colucci. “And so many people don't have that knowledge about what an amazing actor he was and as a human being, which is what I was saying before. The thing about Gavin that I will remember more than anything is his love for life. Everything was, ‘Isn't this just the best?’”

Whelan, who played MacLeod’s daughter on The Love Boat, shared one other thing that she always associates with the late actor.

“If he's having a hot dog: ‘Isn't this the best hot dog you ever had?’ He loved food more than probably anything,” Whelan shared. “And that's why I loved him, because me too. But everything was, ‘Isn't it just the best?’ He lived his life with such gratitude in every moment. And I think that's probably the biggest lesson I ever learned from him.”

Related: Ted Lange Once Confronted Aaron Spelling About White Cast's Prominence on Love Boat: 'Why Can't I Greet People?'

Whelan credited MacLeod with why viewers fell in love with her character Vicki.

“All roads lead back to Gavin MacLeod,” she said. “I really believe that. And Gavin and I had a really special bond and a special chemistry that I think brought another side of the captain to an audience who already loved him. And it softened his character in a way that couldn't be done with a crew, because obviously he was the head guy on the ship.”

The actress first appeared as a guest star on The Love Boat season 2 while also working on the 1979 series, Friends, which was produced by Aaron Spelling.

“But not the Friends that you know, or I would be driving a much nicer car,” Whelan joked, referring to the hit sitcom that aired for 10 seasons beginning in 1994. “But this one was a really sweet show. It was up against 60 Minutes, and back in those days, they didn't switch time slots like they do now. And so if you didn't make it against 60 Minutes — which no one did — the show didn't go. And I had guested as the role of Vicki Stubing, but I had to go back to my series. And when the show ended, Aaron Spelling called me at home and said, ‘Would you like to come back as the character of Vicki?’”

Whelan’s castmates also had nothing by kind words to say about MacLeod.

“He was so easy to work with, so loving, so helpful,” Kopell said. "I’d say, ‘God, I got a nice, beautiful scene with Gavin.’ And he would be giving. Not all actors are giving. He was so giving and loving.”

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Grandy, who went on to serve as a Republican congressman for four terms, revealed that he and MacLeod stayed in touch after the show because they “were more politically aligned” with one another than with the rest of the cast.

“I'll tell you something about Gavin that is not commonly known and normally not shared with my colleagues: he was a conservative,” Grandy said. "As you probably are aware, Hollywood and that whole milieu is loaded with a lot of liberal claptrap. And Gavin had to keep his, as we say in Washington, had to keep his powder dry, because he was a prominent player in town. And we didn't talk much about politics when I was on the show, but after I left and had gone to Washington, he would call me from time to time and ask me about things.”

The actor-turned-politician referred to what he had with MacLeod as a “secret little liaison.”

"He would call from time to time and ask me about something, and so that was kind of a private little thing that we had," Grandy said. "And I always cherished that.”

Related: Bernie Kopell Was Glad 'My Hairpiece Did Not Fall Off' During Love Scene with Love Boat Guest Star Juliet Prowse

Along with listening to the cast speak on panels, guests aboard the Enchanted Princess for its Love Boat Celebration at Sea have had the chance to meet the stars, test their knowledge of the show at The Love Boat trivia, try specialty Love Boat cocktails, watch episodes of the series by the pool, attend a cocktail demonstration hosted by Lange, the show’s resident bartender, and catch an Air Supply concert. The 100 guests who opted for the Love Boat VIP Package also mingled with the stars at an exclusive welcome reception on Saturday, Aug. 31, and will attend a cast dinner on Thursday, Sept. 5.

Whelan partook in the ship’s sail away celebration when it left from Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 31, as well as the champagne waterfall ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 1. On Friday, Sept. 6, she’ll help close out the trip at the farewell show.

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Princess’s next Love Boat Celebration at Sea themed cruise will sail from Galveston, Texas on Regal Princess from Nov. 16-23, 2025, and make stops throughout Mexico at Cozumel, Costa Maya and Roatan.

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