‘Lost in Space’ Actor Mark Goddard Passes Away at 87

The 1960’s adventure comedy series Lost in Space, says goodbye to its captain, Mark Goddard (The Detectives), who played Major Don West in the show. Goddard was 87 years old, and passed away on Tuesday due to pulmonary fibrosis. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Goddard worked as a regular on the series’ The Detectives and Johnny Ringo prior to working on Lost in Space, and his Major Don West role was brought to him by his agent while he was working on his other shows.

Lost in Space ran on CBS from 1965 to 1968, followed by a movie with the same title released in 1998, and a reimagined series with the same title starting in 2018, running until 2021, which was nominated for several Emmys. The film in the late nineties features Matt LeBlanc (Friends), as Major Don West, with a cameo from June Lockhart (Lassie), who played Maureen Robinson in the original series. The 1965 series follows Major Don West, Professor John Robinson, played by Guy Williams (Captain Sinbad),  and his family, as they head to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system on their ship Jupiter 2. This exploration is due to Earth’s overpopulation in the year 1997. The crew becomes lost in space at the hands of Dr Zachary Smith, played by Jonathan Harris (A Bug’s Life), an accidental stowaway on the ship, whose weight throws Jupiter 2 off its course.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Goddard released a memoir in 2008 titled To Space and Back when he first saw himself in his aluminum baked potato-looking costume for the first time, he thought to himself, “How the hell did this happen… I felt like, jeez, I’m gonna be the next Jimmy Dean…” Goddard studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before getting his start in Hollywood on an episode of The Rifleman and in the TV movie Woman on the Run. 

Co-star Bill Mumy (The Twilight Zone) shared on Facebook a statement on Goddard’s passing, sharing, “R.I.P to Mark Goddard. A truly beloved friend and brother to me for 59 years…”