Mark Goddard Dies: ‘Lost In Space’ Actor Was 87

Awwwwww. One of my first little boy crushes!

So hot. So very very hot.

Meh.

Angela Cartwright posted a lovely tribute on Instagram. Saw him on Broadway in The Act with Liza. Nothing role but he was HOT.

Aw damn. I didn't understand my feelings as a kid but I was always laser focused on him when watching the show. RIP

serious

size

meat

He always seemed so angry, like he would throw a mean fuck.

Way before my time, but he was quite handsome.

R7, That was the dream

He had what I would call a very sympathetic face. Handsome with a very sweet demeanor. Almost too sweet to be truly sexy.

@r7, He was angry and so was Guy Williams. Dr. Smith was suppose to only be on the first couple of episodes, but he was so popular that they kept him on. The focus of the show shifted to Dr. Smith, the robot and Will Robinson. Guy and Mark were very resentful and it showed

OMG. I loved that show. It was right on the border of my bed-time so I was always careful not to piss my mom off when it was coming on. Still love the robot, too.

^ It was my favorite as well 🙂

Sizzling Hot !

The New York Times considers him a bigger star than Phyllis Coates. They gave him an obit, but not her.

Well, he is a bigger star than Phyllis Coates.

[quote] Well, he is a bigger star than Phyllis Coates.

Not anymore.

Phyllis who?

I don't remember any giant spiders on Lost in space.

British theater actor Keith Baxter has also just died but I see no thread devoted to him here.

R19, I think it was only shown briefly exiting the spaceship with all of the other monsters in the Michael Rennie episode from season 1 called "The Keeper." It was that same fake-ass looking puppet that also appeared in the "Gilligan's Island" episode about the pigeon.

One of my early childhood crushes, long before I had any inkling of what that crush meant.

Enjoyed him as Ted Clayton on OLTL in 1980-81.

R20. Oh that's sad about Keith Baxter. So handsome.

My favorite episode was one where Don got knocked out and when he fell on the floor his back was to a wall and his left arm fell down between his legs and his hand fell right onto his crotch. I guess he felt it better to not move it because they would have had to reshoot the scene since he was supposed to be out cold. But that hand on his crotch sent my young loins into stratospheric levels of fire.

How is his lovely widow Paulette doing?

Oh yes here is a giant spider @ 45.

He raised Jack Nicholson's bio son Caleb as his own, after he married Susan Anspach. The online obits only mention a daughter, however.

We used to live in the same Massachusetts town until he moved to another.

Very approachable, you’d often see him out and about.

R20, Keith Baxter and Rex Reed were once longtime lovers. Expect a heart wrenching obituary from Rex soon.

Drink this fake Viki

R29. I had no idea! I always thought there was something sexy about Rexy.

R31, You had no idea Rex Reed was gay? Seriously?

He had a hot ass but he couldn't last forever in space.

In his Television Academy interviews, Bill Mumy recalls pranks that he and Mark used to play on the Paramount lot. Very big brother-little brother relationship.

I don't know him.

R7- Like Robin from the BATMAN show.

Robin alway seemed ANGRY and like he was walking around with a permanent BONER and was ALWAYS ready to fuck.

Any word from Don West’s brother Kanye yet?

R32. I had no idea Rex and Keith had been involved. Of course I knew Rex is gay. I'm not Helen Keller, dear.

My favorite episode was when they landed on a planet and Judy cut a massive putrid fart that offended the inhabitants of the planet so they captured Don and fucked him up the ass.

Damn he was hot.

Bill Mumy's Facebook post on Mark:

R41 Well, that made me cry.

Thanks, R41. How many of us have sixty-year friendships like theirs? Mumy is a class act.

r26 I just realized Dr Smith had a nice ass but ewww.

@r41...

"Mark was a truly fine actor. Naturally gifted as well as trained. I know he sometimes felt constricted by the campy frame that LIS constrained him within, but he also embraced and loved it. "

Told you he was mad at the change in direction the show took 😉

- r11

And then there were four...

He's with his siblings Jean-Luc and Paulette now.

I read something some years back about the on-set feelings between the actors regarding the focus quickly moving to Dr. Smith/Will/Robot. Yes, Guy Williams was not happy and neither was Mark Goddard, but they were never unhappy with Jonathan Harris or Billy Mumy. In fact it was many years after the show went off the air that Harris even learned that there was any unhappiness. Their ire was completely with the suits making decisions. Williams & Goddard and to some extent June Lockhart eventually came to realize that at the time their fortunes were primarily due to the popularity of Johnathan Harris.

Mark Goddard and Jonathan Harris were very close friends until Harris' death. After LIS Guy Williams pretty much went off the map in the US, spending more and more time working in Argentina, where he eventually moved in retirement. He was a major star there and treated as Royalty due to his work on the Zorro series, a show the people of Argentina loved. In fact the Argentinian government provided him with a palatial home where he lived for the remainder of his life. Poor guy dropped dead, alone in his home,of a brain aneurysm and wasn't found until people reported not seeing him for days.

Here's the first of a couple of YouTube videos of Harris talking about LIS.

Here he talks about how he rewrote most of his lines on LIS. All those one liners he came up with when talking to the Robot were things he came up with on his own.

^ I love Jonathan Harris the quintessential persnickety old queen of the theater, but he sure knew how to camp 😉

His brother was an unhappy bastard who ran the Five and Ten Cent Store in the town where they grew up and my grandmother had a summer house. I used to see Mark on TV as a kid and think, “Eh, Jimmy’s little brother. Lives over by the golf course.”

@r36, "Robin alway seemed ANGRY and like he was walking around with a permanent BONER and was ALWAYS ready to fuck."

Yeah, like a chihuahua that won't stop humping your leg 😏

Gasp

Too bad his daytime acting career was hampered By boring un talented co-star.

Those 1960s TV brunette hunks like Goddard, Van Williams, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, Barry Coe, Robert Fuller and on and on. were hot but really rather bland and interchangeable.

^ Shorty Bob gives his two cents 😂

Have you read his book?

He has another one - Three Years Lost in space.

I just bought a 3-volume series from Amazon on the original Lost in Space. It's by Marc Cushman and is labeled the "authorized biography" of the show. Haven't read it yet but looking forward to it.

I wonder if Playgirl Magazine ever approached him.

I'm sure they did, R60. But give the lack of even a shirtless picture on the 'net I am sure he said , "hell no!"

R61, Here’s a tease.

Angela Cartwright's FB

Nice, R63. Thanks.

and Marta Kristen's FB

Have we heard from June?... She's still alive, isn't she?

She is, but given the long silence I suspect she's not in a position to communicate. After all, she's 98! If she's been told at all, I'm sure she feels bad.

June is alive, but at 98 I doubt she knows it.

Was Mark ever shirtless on the show? In the episode where the sun got super hot? I seem to recall Guy was, maybe in a wrestling match?

How did he die?

Nope, 69. Believe me -I've checked. Mark and Guy only ever got down to t-shirts.

r40 Provided a shirtless picture and you guys are just going on and on... 🙄

pulmonary fibrosis.

Mark’s Massachusetts obituary.

r72, shirtless with no visible nipple or navel hardly counts as shirtless.

I was sure Guy had a boxing scene where was shirtless and fighting a monster.

Yeah, you'd think, given how often William Shatner appeared shirtless on Star Trek, that Irwin Allen would've had Guy and Mark appear shirtless a few times on LIS (or Mark at the very least). Talk about a missed opportunity!

Irwin Allen was an overgrown little boy. Monsters and explosions -yes! Sex? No! Look at the early episodes of Lost In Space -Don and Judy had some definite moments. But then it just disappeared. Irwin didn't like romance...

He was hot and kind if mean. I liked him. I also liked Jethro Clampett gollygoshing shirtless around the ce-ment pond. I was a happy little gayling.

At a 2018 appearance.

Mark surely had some dirt on Liza since he was in The Act and we know it was a troubled production.

[quote]Edd "Kookie" Byrnes

Blond, r55...

For those seeking a shirtless photo, he’s showing some fur here.

^Sorry.

An open shirt shot from 1975.

Guy...

An Internet site claims that’s Mark on the right.

I can believe that's Mark at r87. At least now we know he had some nice nipples. Not sure about his navel though....

The funniest Bill Mumy interview is when "Celebrity Family Feud" wanted to have a team from "Lost in Space."

Jonathan Harris called Bill and asked if he was going to do it. Bill said no.

Then Harris said gleefully, "GOOD, dear boy! Without us there is no LOST IN SPACE!"

Has Liza commented on Mark’s death?

Is this his last photo?

R91, No way is that a recent photo. The man was 87.

R90 - yes.

Darling Mark was my third husband and we were very much in love. But we were very different people. I used to sing to him, "What good is sculpting alone in your room. Come here the music play. " I will miss him. What? Who is Mark Goddard?!

Wow, Marta Kristen looks fantastic for 79 years old! And somewhat real, she doesn't appear to have had a ton of work done, very natural. Terrific.

He married my mom's best friend from college. I met him only once. I was working at The Museum of Television & Radio in Bev Hills and we did a Lost in Space event. He drank. And drank. Literally fell out of his chair on stage.

Years later, I learned about Karyn Kupcinet, and how he was the last person to see her alive. I always wanted to ask him about that. Ah well.

Reading about his early years in Hollywood, he had the LIFE. Roommates with Adam West, early on. Doing lots of guest shots on TV shows and supporting roles in movies. The late '50s and the '60s were the best time to live in Hollywood. I really romanticize that era here. Very Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

He was Derrick Barrington on General Hospital.

R95, Mark and his wife discovered Karyn Kupcinet’s dead body.

Her 1963 murder has never been solved.

Was it a three-way that went too far?

Mark was never a suspect. Andrew Prine was.

Marta looks like Kim Cattrall in that pic.

Wasn't it pretty much accepted that it was Hope Lange's brother who murdered her but they couldn't prove it?

R99, Yes, Andrew Prine was a prime suspect but he was never charged, Karyn’s parents never believed Prine murdered their daughter.

BTW, Andrew Prine did pack an impressive weapon.

R41 The Bill Mumy write-up is a touching tribute. I knew from recently reading his memoir, Danger Will Robinson: The Full Mumy, that he was close with Mark Goddard, sort of a big brother relationship that lasted through the decades.

Rewatching some Lost in Space episodes as a tribute to Mark. How many times did he have Dr. Smith in a chokehold?

Also Guy Williams has serious VPL.

R21 - I assume the giant spider is what The Keeper had in the basement cage.

R106, he kept all of the monsters in cages on his ship. They only got out because Dr. Smith fucked up and released them. IIRC, the Keeper used this glowing orb like thing to summon them all back to the ship.

It was actually John who broke The Keepers staff that allowed the spider to get out.

R108, I haven't seen the episode in years but as I recall, Dr. Smith snuck aboard the Keeper's spaceship and started pushing buttons he didn't understand (I think in an attempt to cause the ship to lift off) and as a result caused all of the cage doors to suddenly open. That was when all of the creatures (including the spider) escaped the ship. It was a two-part episode and that was the conclusion of part one. At the start of part two, the Keeper uses his staff (not the glowing ball-like thing I mentioned before) to summon all of the creatures back to the ship.

I attached part 2 of the episode to R26. Yes Dr. Smith released some of the monsters at the end of the first part but you will see at 26.30 that John pushes the staff over.

More like he throws it to the ground which later we see breaks the power. The spider is not seen exit the ship with the other monsters in part 1. In part 2 its legs attack the powerless Keeper after the Robinsons leave and then it is seen outside and attacks the chariot.

Death follows Hope Lange wherever she goes.

Hope Lange doesn't get out much these days, R112.

Another big spider in "The Prisoners of Space". An alien from a galactic tribunal appears at the Robinsons' camp carrying a talking computer that announces the family and Don have been indicted for committing crimes in space. The spider which sits on a rock is one of the jury.

I think Hope Lange’s nutty brother David killed Karyn Kupcinet.

Mark's physical acting on the show is very Actors Studio compared to Guy Williams' cartoonish posture and attitudes. Guy thinks he is still playing Zorro.

Before Major West there was thirty eight episodes of Cully

We used to live in the same Massachusetts town until he moved to another.

Very approachable, you’d often see him out and about.

R118 is a plagiarist.