Mark Goddard, who played the hot-tempered Major Don West on the 1960s science-fiction television series “Lost in Space,” died Tuesday. He was 87.
Goddard died at a hospice center in Hingham, Massachusetts, The New York Times reported. The cause of death was of pulmonary fibrosis, his son, John, told the newspaper.
The actor’s third wife, Evelyn Pezzulich, also announced his death in a social media post.
“Several days after celebrating his 87th birthday, he was hospitalized with pneumonia,” Pezzulich wrote. “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.”
Goddard had been a regular on the television series “Johnny Ringo” and “The Detectives” when his agent approached him about appearing in “Lost in Space,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The series centered around the Robinson family, space colonists whose ship went off course during the year 1997, leaving them on a planet that was inhospitable yet still sustained human life, the Times reported.
Goddard piloted the Jupiter 2 rocket that carried the family: Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams); his biochemist wife, Maureen (June Lockhart); and their children Judy, Penny and Will (Marta Kristen, Angela Cartwright and Billy Mumy), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Also on board was a stowaway, Dr. Zachary Smith, played by Jonathan Harris, and a robot, played by Bob May and voiced by Dick Tufeld, the entertainment news website reported.
Harris was the character who sent the ship off course and generally was the one who annoyed Major West, the Times reported. Still, it was Goddard’s character who once took a spacewalk to save Smith from a seductive alien creature, according to the newspaper.
Goddard appeared in all 84 episodes of “Lost in Space” from 1965 to 1968, according to IMDb.com.
Mumy posted a tribute to Goddard in a Facebook post, calling him a “true beloved friend and brother to me for 59 years.”
“Mark was a truly fine actor. Naturally gifted as well as trained,” Mumy wrote. “I know he sometimes felt constricted by the campy frame that LIS constrained him within, but he also embraced and loved it.”
While appearing on “Lost in Space,” Goddard also appeared in several films, Variety reported. They included “The Monkey’s Uncle” and “A Rage to Live” in 1965, as well as “The Love-Ins” in 1967.
After “Lost in Space” went off the air, Goddard appeared in several soap operas, including “General Hospital” and “One Life to Live,” according to Variety. He also appeared in the 1977 film “Blue Sunshine.”
Goddard had a cameo in the “Lost in Space” film in 1998 that starred Matt LeBlanc as his character, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Lockhart, Cartwright and Kristen also had cameos in the film.
Charles Harvey Goddard was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on July 24, 1936, according to the Times. He grew up in nearby Scituate and would attend Holy Cross College in Worcester, the newspaper reported.
In 1957, while a junior at college, Goddard transferred to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Two years later, he moved to Los Angeles, according to the Times.
In later life, Goddard completed his college education and earned a master’s degree, Variety reported. He taught children with special educational needs for more than 20 years in Massachusetts.