Thurston Howell III (aka James Backus) was actually a billionaire and one of the world's richest men, inherited from his father. He met his wife 'Lovey' at Harvard and married her in 1944. He remembers it as the day Consolidated General jumped 17 points. Although they'd been married 20 years, they both admitted that being stranded for 5 years hadn't been much of a picnic. But still, Thurston could be remarkably sentimental and romantic with Lovey. Known as the Wizard of Wall Street, he was convicted 6 times on antitrust suits, and investigated every year for income tax evasion. He owned up to 12 corporations, and as chairman of the board, had 5, 000 employees and an office on the second floor. He prided himself as being a Harvard graduate and a registered Republican. He had homes in Palm Beach, Paris, Newport, New York, Monaco, and all 50 states. Thurston had 20 suitcases just for himself. Howell displayed little tact, blamed the Skipper for the shipwreck, and was always trying to break the castaways' laws and bribe others. He was sneaky, untrustworthy, conniving, greedy and corrupt. Yet, when it came to the lives of his fellow castaways, he was always exceptionally generous and caring. He refused to do manual labor, preferring instead to hire Gilligan to work for him. He usually spent his days relaxing with his wife Lovey on the bamboo lounge chairs, sipping tropical drinks, and listening to the stock market report on the radio (which was his). He also enjoyed playing golf with bamboo and seashell clubs and reading his only copy of the Wall Street Journal every day. He found it comforting that the market never went up or down. Mr. Howell is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park, Los Angeles.