PRODUCER, ACTOR BEST KNOWN FOR DOBIE GILLIS

Dwayne Hickman, the actor and network TV executive who despite numerous achievements throughout his life would always be remembered fondly by a generation of baby boomers for his role as Dobie Gillis, has died. He was 87.

Hickman died of complications from Parkinson’s on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles, according to a statement from a family representative, B. Harlan Boll. He was surrounded by family members when he died, it said.

Although Hickman went on to appear on other TV shows and in movies, as well as having successful behindthe-scenes careers as a publicist, talent booker for a prominent Howard Hughes-owned casino in Las Vegas and TV programming executive for CBS, he could never escape his public connection to Dobie, who pursued, but could never win the heart of, almost every girl he saw.

“Now it’s nice,” Hickman, who was also an accomplished painter, told a reporter during an exhibition of his work in St. Louis in 2003. “It’s very sweet to see how much Dobie Gillis meant to a lot of baby boomers, who are always nice when I meet them.”

His autobiography, cowritten with Joan Roberts Hickman, his wife, was published in 1995. It was titled “Forever Dobie.”

“The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” marked by sharp humor and a brilliant young cast that also included Bob Denver, Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld, was an instant hit when it debuted in 1959.

After his acting career slowed in the 1970s, Hickman became talent director at Hughes’ Landmark Hotel and worked 10 years as a program director at CBS, overseeing such series as “M.A.S.H.,” “Dukes of Hazzard,” “Maude” and “Designing Women.”

He began to study painting in the late 1980s “so I could learn to do it right,” he said, and eventually saw his works exhibited at art galleries across the country.

Dwayne Bernard Hickman was born May 18, 1934, in Los Angeles.

He was married three times: to Carol Christensen, 1963-1972; Joanne Papile, 197781; and Joan Roberts, whom he married in 1983 and who survives him. Hickman and his first wife had a son, John, and he and his third wife had a son, Albert.