Mark Goddard

Mark Goddard (born Charles Harvey Goddard; July 24, 1936) is an American actor who has starred in a number of television programs. He is probably best known for portraying Major Don West, the hot-tempered second in command of the Jupiter 2, in the CBS series Lost in Space (1965–1968). He also played Detective Sgt. Chris Ballard, The Detectives, starring Robert Taylor.

Charles Harvey Goddard was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the youngest of five children, and grew up in Scituate. He was raised Catholic.

He led both his high school baseball and basketball teams to the state championship finals. Goddard dreamed of becoming a basketball player, but eventually turned to acting. He originally attended Holy Cross College after high school, but he then transferred and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. After two years, he moved to Los Angeles, California.

In 1959, after just three weeks in Hollywood, he landed a role in the CBS Four Star Television series Johnny Ringo, having played the character of Cully, the deputy to Don Durant's character of Ringo. At this time, he changed his name to Mark Goddard at the suggestion of his friend and mentor Chuck Connors of The Rifleman. Goddard appeared as Norman Tabor in the 1960 episode "Surprise Party" of the CBS anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson. He was cast as Sheldon Hollingsworth in the 1960 episode "To See the Elephant" of the ABC Western series The Rebel, starring Nick Adams. He played Tod Rowland in the 1960 episode "The Mormons" on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater.

Goddard also was signed for a role lasting three years and 64 episodes in The Detectives, another series produced by Four Star Television. The Detectives was a hit series which ran on ABC and NBC from 1958 to 1961. In 1963, Goddard appeared as Roy Mooney on the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Potted Planter". In 1964 Goddard appeared as Richard on The Virginian in the episode titled "The Secret of Brynmar Hall."

In 1965, he played Lester Crawford in "The Case of the Frustrated Folk Singer". He also appeared with Keir Dullea as sparring college roommates in an episode of ABC's drama series Channing, costarring Jason Evers and Henry Jones. He was featured in the 1965 film A Rage to Live, starring Suzanne Pleshette. From 1964 to 1965, Goddard starred in Many Happy Returns, in which he portrayed Bob Randall, the young husband of Joan Randall, played by Elinor Donahue.

Lost in Space

Goddard's next role was for the three seasons of Lost in Space (1965–68), in which he played Major Don West. The original 1965 pilot was much different from the pilot that aired and the episodes that followed in the actual series. A blossoming romance existed between Don West and Judy, the elder daughter of the Robinson family, but it did not extend further than the first season. By the middle of the second season, the show took on a more comic tone, and instead of the love-relationship with Judy, Major West maintained a hate-relationship with the hapless, sociopathic Dr. Smith (played by Jonathan Harris).

Plots increasingly drew on the mishaps of Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) and his friends, who could always be counted upon to save him and all of the inhabitants of the Jupiter II — The Robot (animated by Bob May, voiced by Dick Tufeld) and Will Robinson (Bill Mumy), the youngest of the three Robinson children. Castmates included Guy Williams, the former star of Zorro (1957–59), as Professor John Robinson and the credited star of the series; June Lockhart, the former star of Lassie (1959–64), as Dr. Maureen Robinson; Marta Kristen as elder daughter Judy Robinson; and Angela Cartwright (one of the von Trapp children in The Sound of Music).

On June 14, 1995, the rest of the cast and he paid tribute to producer Irwin Allen, who had died late in 1991. On October 16, 1997, (the same day the show's fictional Jupiter II spaceship departed in the original episode), Goddard and the rest of the surviving cast also appeared on the inside cover of TV Guide to promote the feature film of Lost in Space. At the same time, the Sci-Fi Channel had planned to do a Lost in Space marathon. Goddard, along with Harris and the rest of his cast, were planning in 2002 for the movie Lost in Space: The Journey Home to air on NBC, which never came to fruition. (Original star Guy Williams had retired from acting, moved to Buenos Aires, and had died in 1989, predeceasing Harris.)

Later acting career

Goddard guest-starred on three ABC series, The Fugitive, The Mod Squad, and The Fall Guy and for a while, moonlighted as a Hollywood agent. In 1976, he starred as politician Edward Fleming in the movie Blue Sunshine. In 1970, Goddard co-starred with Kent McCord and Martin Milner in an episode of Adam-12, in which he plays a friend of Pete Malloy (Milner), who is killed in the line of duty. The episode was entitled "Elegy for a Pig" (so titled and announced by Jack Webb himself).

Goddard played a supporting role in a first-season episode of NBC's Quincy M.E. as an attorney.

In 1978, Goddard starred with Liza Minnelli on Broadway in the musical The Act.

In 1979, Goddard was in the disco movie Roller Boogie featuring Linda Blair and Jim Bray. Goddard starred as Ted Clayton on One Life to Live and Lt. Paul Reed on The Doctors. Later, Goddard starred as Derek Barrington on General Hospital. He made a cameo appearance in the reboot film Lost in Space (1998) as the general in charge of the Jupiter Mission and superior officer to his former character Major Don West.

Goddard finished college 30 years after beginning his studies and received his master's degree in education from Bridgewater State College. From 1991 through at least 2009, he served as a special education teacher at the F.L. Chamberlain School in Middleboro, Massachusetts, where he taught an acting class. In 2009, he released an autobiographical memoir To Space and Back. While at Bridgewater State College, he met his future wife, English professor Evelyn Pezzulich. The couple has one child, John. His second wife, actress Susan Anspach, brought two children to their marriage.