Mark Goddard, the actor known for playing Maj. Don West, in the campy, popular 1960s science fiction series “Lost in Space,” died of pulmonary fibrosis on Tuesday, at a hospice center in Hingham, Mass., his wife, Evelyn Pezzluich, announced on Facebook. He was 87.
Goddard was hospitalized with pneumonia days after celebrating his birthday, said Pezzluich. He was transferred to a rehabilitation center where doctors discovered that he was in the final stages of pulmonary fibrosis.
For three seasons from 1965-68, Goddard, as West, starred in the CBS series that chronicled the adventures of the Robinson family, a talking robot and a dastardly stowaway, Dr. Smith. The group became stranded on a distant planet after their ship, the Jupiter 2, went off course en route to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri system.
The show, created by Irwin Allen, a producer who was known as the “Master of Disaster” for such films as “The Towering Inferno,” helped popularize the phrase, “danger, Will Robinson.”
Bill Mumy, left, Angela Cartwright, Marta Kristen, and Mark Goddard at San Diego Comic-Con in 2015.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Although the series eventually became a cult classic, Goddard initially did not want to take part. “I didn’t want to do it,” he said in 1990. “Now, the reason I didn’t want do the series at first is because I had never done science fiction, and had no idea what it was going to be like.”
Throughout the 1960s, Goddard also appeared in several films, including “The Monkey’s Uncle” and “A Rage to Live.” After “Lost in Space” went off the air, he became a frequent guest star on popular TV shows “Mod Squad” and “The Streets of San Francisco.” He also worked on soap operas, appearing on “One Life to Live” and “General Hospital.” In 1977 he starred in the horror film “Blue Sunshine.”
“R.I.P. to Mark Goddard. A truly beloved friend and brother to me for 59 years. I knew this was coming for the past few months. Shortly after a great phone chat he and I had on his 87th birthday in late July, I became aware that I would most likely never see or speak with him again. The last words we exchanged were ‘I love you,” wrote his “Lost in Space” co-star Bill Mumy on Facebook.
The actor was born as Charles Harvey Goddard in Lowell, Mass., on July 24, 1936. He was the youngest of five children who grew up in Scituate, Mass., where his parents owned the local five-and-dime store. Goddard attended Holy Cross College in Worcester and dreamed of a career as a professional basketball player. But after acting in a play in 1957, he headed to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
In 1959, Goddard landed in Los Angeles where he soon won parts on TV shows such as “Perry Mason,” “The Rifleman” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
Mark Goddard at San Deigo Comic-Con in 2015.
(Paul A. Hebert/Invision/Associated Press)
Although his acting career waned, Goddard still appeared in TV shows and films over the years. In 1998, he made a cameo in the movie version of “Lost in Space.” In 2009, he published his memoir, “To Space and Back.”
By 1991, at age 55, Goddard decided to switch course. He earned a master’s degree in education from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts, and he became a special education teacher.
Goddard was married three times; his second wife was the actress Susan Anspach.
“I’ll never know how I deserved to spend 33 years with such a loving, gentle, handsome man who made me laugh so often,” wrote Pezzluich on her Facebook post.