Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 15, 2025 | 15 comments

An ANNIVERSARY SHOWCASE!

The crew of the Jupiter 2, along with the Robot and a reluctant stowaway. Back row: Angela Cartwright, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen, the Robot (perhaps with Bob May inside), Jonathan Harris, and Guy Williams. Front right: June Lockhart and Billy Mumy.

By PETER BOSCH

Today, Sept. 15, marks the 60th anniversary of the original, 1965 Lost in Space TV program. Or maybe I should say an early 28th anniversary since the launch of the Jupiter 2 took place within the show on October 16, 1997. Either way, let us begin this celebration with the brave onboard crew, examining the previous experience each brought to Lost in Space:

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Guy Williams (John Robinson)

Williams was born as Armando Joseph Catalano on January 14, 1924, in New York City. After attending public school and then going on to a military academy, he joined the work force as a welder, an accountant, and as a department store salesman.

With his handsome looks, he was a natural to become a model, and ended up changing his professional name to Guy Williams when he encountered prejudice against being hired under his own. In 1946, a one-year acting contract with MGM took him out to Hollywood, but he had very little satisfaction playing small roles here and there. Williams alternated between New York and Hollywood, with a few more film and television appearances along the way.

When he heard of the audition for Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro in 1957, he tried out and Disney hired him for a combination of his charm and his ability to handle a sword. The series came to an end in 1959 and he went on to appear in several films after that, including starring as the swashbuckling Captain Sindbad (1963).

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June Lockhart (Maureen Robinson)

She was born June 25, 1925 — 100 years ago and still living! — in New York City and, being the daughter of film actors Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, performing really was in her blood. She made her professional debut at age 8 on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in a dream sequence of Peter Ibbetson.

A few years later she appeared in her first movie, A Christmas Carol (1938), as Belinda Cratchit, the daughter of Bob Cratchit and his wife (played in the film by her real-life parents). In the 1940s, she appeared in the classic MGM musical, Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and, in a chance preview of her future TV life, she co-starred in Son of Lassie (1945). However, not all roles were great career builders. Her first top-billing part was as the main suspect in She-Wolf of London (1946).

In the late Forties, she went to Broadway for the play For Love or Money — and ended up winning a Tony Award for Outstanding Performance by a Newcomer. But, of course, her earliest claim to fame was playing Timmy’s mother in the TV series Lassie from 1958 to 1964.

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Mark Goddard (Major Don West)

Born Charles Harvey Goddard in Lowell, Massachusetts, on July 24, 1936, he thought of going into professional sports but succumbed to the acting bug and studied in New York for a few years. Moving to Los Angeles, he was there less than a month before he was hired for the TV western, Johnny Ringo, as the deputy to the title character. The series was cancelled in 1960 after just one season, but he had better luck with his next show, The Detectives, joining the cast in its second season.

Following that he did guest spots in various series and then landed the sitcom Many Happy Returns in 1964, which was abruptly cancelled in early 1965. However, good things can come from bad. It gave him the chance for ever-lasting fame by stepping aboard the Jupiter 2 as its pilot.

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Marta Kristen (Judy Robinson)

She was born Birgit Annalisa Rusanen in Oslo, Norway, on February 26, 1945. Her natural mother took her to an underground orphanage after her German soldier father was killed so the child would not be taken and raised in a Nazi home. When she was five, she was adopted by an American couple and brought to the United States. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1959 and it gave the young miss a chance at showbiz.

Changing her name to Marta Kristen along the way, she made her first TV appearance in 1961 in an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, “Bang! You’re Dead.” In it, coincidentally, she had a scene with Billy Mumy! Her first film was 1963’s Savage Sam from Walt Disney. In 1965, she was cast in Beach Blanket Bingo as a mermaid in love — and she was the best thing in it.

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Billy Mumy (Will Robinson)

He was born February 1, 1954 in San Gabriel, California, and became a child actor almost from the cradle. Starting at age 7, Charles William Mumy Jr, was cast in an incredible amount of roles in TV series as diverse as Wagon Train, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, Bewitched, and The Munsters. And, of course, three times on The Twilight Zone, including the never-to-be-forgotten episode “It’s A Good Life” where, if he didn’t like you, he used his mental powers to punish you in very deadly ways.

One of his luckiest roles was in the movie Dear Brigitte (1965), where he received a kiss from Brigitte Bardot.

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Angela Cartwright (Penny Robinson)

Born Angela Margaret Cartwright in England on September 9, 1952, her parents moved the family to Los Angeles when she was just a year old. When she was 3, she appeared as Paul Newman’s daughter in the film Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) (while her older sister, Veronica, would have to wait until the age of 9 to make her debut in the 1958 movie, In Love and War).

Angela won hearts all over America when she joined the cast of The Danny Thomas Show in late 1957 as his adopted daughter, Linda, and remained with the show until its end in 1964. And while Veronica was fighting the terrors of The Birds for Hitchcock, Angela took on the much easier role of Brigitta von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965).

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Jonathan Harris (Dr. Zachary Smith)

Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin came into this world November 6, 1914… and his record after that of screen and Broadway credits is so long, I can do him no better justice than to post links to his credits here and here.

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Bob May (the Robot) and Dick Tufeld (voice of the Robot)

Bob May (left) and Dick Tufeld (right)

Bob May was born September 4, 1939, in New York City, and his showbiz history predated everyone else’s in the cast. He first appeared at the age of 2 when he “worked” with his grandfather Chic Johnson in the Broadway review, Hellzapoppin. After appearing as a sometimes actor and stuntman, May was hired because he fit in the suit of the Robot.

Richard Norton Tufeld started in radio in 1950 as an announcer on various programs, and then went on to television, where his voiceover assignments included Walt Disney’s Zorro starring Guy Williams. It’s been said that while Bob May was inside the Robot. Dick Tufeld was its soul. Tufeld was also the announcer on Lost in Space.

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While the crew of the Jupiter 2 were the world’s focus, back on the ground at Alpha Control were a whole team of experts. Here are the two biggest:

Irwin Allen

The chief architect of the original mission of the Gemini 12 — later redesigned and renamed the Jupiter 2 — was born Irwin O. Cohen on June 12, 1916, in New York. Among his earliest steps in show business (and creating fantasy) was as a carnival barker while in his late teens. In 1938, after studying advertising and journalism at Columbia University, he moved to Los Angeles. He edited Key magazine and had his own radio show for a number of years, as well as wrote a newspaper column on Hollywood happenings.

Ambition continued to drive him and, by 1950, he was a TV and film producer, with directing following a few years later. His name could be found front and center on motion pictures such as The Story of Mankind (1957), The Lost World (1960), and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), as well as the 1964 TV series based on the latter.

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John Williams (aka Johnny Williams)

Prior to Lost in Space, the music scores of John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932 in Queens, New York) could be heard on TV programs such as M Squad, Gidget, Bachelor Father, and Gilligan’s Island, even if he didn’t write the programs’ actual themes.

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The show’s popularity led to magazine appearances (including Mad) and merchandise:

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So, after the show was cancelled on March 6, 1968, was the crew forever lost in space? No.

Guy Williams retired to Argentina, where he lived well on earnings from investments. June Lockhart went on to appear as a regular on Petticoat Junction, and her two daughters, Anne and Lizabeth, carried on the acting tradition (Anne was a regular on Battlestar Galactica).

Mark Goddard continued acting, including a two-year stint on the soap opera General Hospital. Marta Kristen had guest-starring roles on numerous TV series and in feature films, including Battle Beyond the Stars.

Bill Mumy was just getting started with his career, and went on to act in many productions, form a rock band, write comic books, do voice work, and so much more. Angela Cartwright co-starred in the Make Room for Granddaddy series, an update of The Danny Thomas Show, and has been a photographer for many years.

Jonathan Harris continued acting, and established a career as a voice actor. Bob May appeared on various TV programs as an actor, while Dick Tufeld continued to provide narration for various shows, including Spider-Woman and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

Irwin Allen, of course, would be a creative force in TV and in movies, including The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974).

As to John Williams — are you serious?

1995 group photo. Back row (left to right): Bob May, Bill Mumy, the Robot, Mark Goddard, and Jonathan Harris. Front row (left to right): June Lockhart, Marta Kristen, and Angela Cartwright.

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MORE

— Q&A: LOST IN SPACE, Comics and Pop Culture With BILL MUMY. Click here.

— LOST IN SPACE ROBOT: One of the Best Toys I Never Had — Until Now. Click here.

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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is out now. (Buy it here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.