Personal life
From 1966 to 1971, Louise was married to radio and TV announcer/interviewer Les Crane, with whom she had one daughter, Caprice Crane (born 1970), who became an MTV producer and a novelist.
From 1965 to 1968, Les Crane had simultaneous careers as an actor and an interviewer. In 1969, when he was concentrating on acting, he and Louise appeared together as a fictitious married couple in a segment of Love, American Style titled "Love and the Advice-Givers."
Louise is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a lifetime member of the Actors Studio. Louise has been a vocal advocate for improving child literacy. She donated a portion of the proceeds of her 2007 book, When I Grow Up, to literacy programs and said in a 2013 interview that she had been volunteering at local public schools since 1996. She has written three books including Sunday: A Memoir (1997). When I Grow Up is a children's book that invites children to believe they can become whatever they choose through comparisons drawn from the animal kingdom. A second children's book, What Does a Bee Do?, was published in 2009.
Louise is quoted as saying, "The best movie you'll ever be in is your own life because that's what matters in the end."
A Democrat, Tina Louise campaigned for John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential race and campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race.
In March 2025, The New York Times ran a story on Tina Louise, then 91, about how she still worked one hour a week, tutoring school children in reading at an Upper East Side Manhattan public school. Louise spoke of her weekly reading sessions in the article, saying: "It's better than vitamins."
