Lost in Space Actor Mark Goddard Dies at 87

Goddard portrayed Don West on the beloved sci-fi series.

By Jenna Anderson

Mark Goddard, an actor best known for portraying Major Don West on the original run of Lost in Space, has passed away at the age of 87. The news was confirmed in a statement from his wife, Evelyn Pezzulich, to The Hollywood Reporter. According to Pezzulich, Goddard passed away on Tuesday, October 10th in Hingham, Massachusetts. Goddard's death was reportedly caused by complications from pulmonary fibrosis.

Goddard was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on July 24, 1936. After initially have aspirations to be a professional basketball player, Goddard turned to acting, studying at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After moving to Los Angeles in 1959, Goddard quickly landed the role of Cully in the western series Johnny Ringo, alongside Don Durant and Karen Sharp. This was then followed by a three-season stint as Sgt. Chris Ballard on The Detectives. Across the 1960s, Goddard also appeared on The Rifleman, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Perry Mason, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, and The Rebel. Beginning in 1965, Goddard portrayed Major Don West on Lost in Space, which chronicled the sci-fi adventures of the Robinson family. Goddard became a staple of the fan-favorite television series, which ran until 1968.

"Before I went into it I didn't particularly want to do it," Goddard later told Pop Entertainment. "I thought, that's science fiction — I wanted to be Paul Newman not Buck Rogers! And then the pilot sold, and I was not happy... I looked like a baked potato in the oven. But it all worked out great. We had a wonderful cast of people."

In his later years as an actor, Goddard's work included The Fugitive, The Mod Squad, The Fall Guy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Barnaby Jones, Adam-12, One Life to Live, The Doctors, Strange Invaders, General Hospital, and Roller Boogie. He also, for a stint of time, operated as a Hollywood agent, and starred in a Broadway production of The Act in 1978 alongside Liza Minnelli. 

Eventually, Goddard finished college thirty years after initially enrolling, eventually receiving his master's degree in education from Bridgewater State College. Beginning in 1991, Goddard served as a special education teacher in Massachusetts. He then made a cameo appearance in the 1998 film reboot of Lost in Space, but did not appear in the recent Netflix reboot of the series. His final acting roles included Overnight Sensation and Soupernatural. He released a memoir, titled To Space and Back, in 2009.

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"It's nostalgia," Goddard later said of the enduring legacy of Lost in Space. "Fans out there who are in their fifties and sixties grew up in a time when there wasn't that much on television. Lost in Space was a family show. People like the family, and they hooked onto the characters they could relate to. Characters that could become part of their family."

Our thoughts are with Goddard's family, friends, and fans at this time.

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