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

Mark Goddard, the actor who made a lasting impression on young sci-fi fans as the daring, forever impatient Major Don West on CBS’ 1965-68 series Lost In Space, died of pulmonary fibrosis Tuesday in Hingham, Massachusetts. He was 87.

His death was announced by his wife Evelyn Pezzulich in a Facebook post.

“I’m so sorry to tell you that my wonderful husband passed away on October 10th,” Pezzulich wrote. “Several days after celebrating his 87th birthday, he was hospitalized with pneumonia. We were hopeful when he was transferred to a rehabilitation center, but then doctors discovered he was in the final stages of pulmonary fibrosis for which there is no cure.”

By the time he was cast in his breakthrough role as the headstrong Major West, Goddard had built a reputation as a rising young actor through supporting appearances in late-’50s fare such as Johnny Ringo and The Rebel. In 1960 he joined the second season of The Detectives, playing Det. Sgt. Chris Ballard for 64 episodes through 1962.

Born Charles Harvey Goddard in Lowell, Massachusetts on July 24, 1936, Goddard studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City before moving to Los Angeles in 1959. Changing his name to Mark Goddard, he soon landed the role of Cully, a deputy character in the Western Johnny Ringo. Over the next few years he made guest appearances in other TV Westerns, including The Rebel starring Nick Adams, Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre, and The Rifleman starring Chuck Connors, who would become a friend and mentor to Goddard.

Other early ’60s credits include Burke’s Law, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, and The Fugitive. In 1964, he was cast in a series regular role on the single season of CBS sitcom Many Happy Returns, playing the son-in-law of a harried department store complaint department boss (John McGiver).

His signature role came in 1965 when he was cast by Lost In Space creator Irwin Allen as Major West. A space-age Swiss Family Robinson, Lost in Space was initially conceived as an action-adventure saga following the Robinson family as they traveled the galaxy. The handsome Goddard was intended as the love interest for the eldest Robinson daughter Judy (Marta Kristen) and right-hand-man to her father John (Guy Williams).

The more dramatic elements of the show soon faded as an undeniable comic dynamic developed between actor Jonathan Harris’ persnickety, trouble-making stowaway Dr. Zachary Smith, Bill Mumy’s precocious young Will Robinson and a soon-to-be iconic robot (Dick Tufeld voicing Bob May in the costume). Goddard’s West, to the actor’s dismay, evolved into an easily angered straight-man foil for and taskmaster to the self-centered Dr. Smith.

After Lost in Space was canceled in 1968, typecasting and the reputation of the show as a campy kids’ alternative to the more serious-minded Star Trek (in one infamous episode, Dr. Smith turned into a celery stalk as the Robinsons battled a man-sized talking carrot), Goddard was back to guest-starring appearances in such series as The Mod Squad and Adam-12.

Though he’d never have a lasting role as memorable as Major West, he maintained a steady presence on television through the 1970s and ’80s, with appearances in popular fare like The Streets of San Francisco, Quincy M.E., Benson and Barnaby Jones. He appeared in the 1979 feature film Roller Boogie starring a post-Exorcist Linda Blair.

Goddard also had occasional roles on the soaps One Life To Live, The Doctors and General Hospital during the 1980s. He and fellow Lost in Space cast members Kristen, Angela Cartwright and June Lockhart made cameo appearances in a 1998 feature film version, which featured Matt LeBlanc in the Major West role.

As his acting career wound down, Goddard returned to school to complete his college education and earn a master’s degree in education from Bridgewater State College in his home state of Massachusetts. In the 1990s and early 2000s he was a special education teacher in Middleboro, Massachusetts. His memoir To Space and Back was published in 2008.

Goddard had previously been married to actress Susan Anspach (Five Easy Pieces) and, through most of the 1960s, Marcia Rogers Goddard. In November 1963, Mark and Marcia Goddard, having grown increasingly concerned when their friend Karyn Kupcinet failed to follow up on a promised phone call, discovered the 22-year-old actress’ body at her West Hollywood apartment. The murder of Kupcinet, the daughter of Chicago newspaper columnist Irv Kupcinet, made national headlines and remains one of Hollywood’s most famous unsolved crimes.