Lost In Space Cast: Where Are They Now?

Far Out! Danger, Will Robinson! The campy, cult-classic sci-fi TV original series Lost in Space (1965-1968), about a group of astronaut pioneers bumping around on the fringes of the cosmos, was a wild ride. 

A cheesier space-opera alternative to Star Trek (1966-1969), the series was basically a freewheeling, far-out spin on the tale of Swiss Family Robinson, Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic-lit yarn about a shipwrecked sailor. But instead of a tropical island, professor John Robinson, his wife, Maureen, their young son and two daughters—plus a couple of others and a yakky robot—were sent hither and yon throughout the loony-verse by their spacecraft, the wayward Jupiter II, that seemed ever-attracted to asteroid storms.

For a generation of young viewers fascinated by NASA, the Apollo moon missions, and the “space race” of the era, Lost in Space provided pure escapism—and an instant TV shortcut to the fanciful, futuristic answers of what might be “out there.” In their way-off-course seriocomic travels, the Robinsons encountered all sorts of weird and wacky alien creatures—hillbilly witches, loony pirates, a giant cyclops, an ape-chicken, a space Viking, a guy in a carrot costume, a motorcycle gang vroom-vrooming on the far side of the Milky Way. 

Kooky, matinee-movie astro-adventure served up on a prime-time platter, Lost in Space was kitschy, dumb-fun, hammy studio-set, far-out faux-thrills with a wink-wink nudge of silliness. The audience knew that everything was all one big, galactic-goofball inside joke—complete with guest-star cameos. Eagle-eyed viewers over the show’s three seasons could spot Col. Klink from Hogan’s Heroes (Werner Klemperer), Lurch from The Addams Family (Ted Cassidy), The Munsters’ Grandpa (Al Lewis), veteran actor John Carradine, comedian Wally Cox or Arte Johnson from Laugh-In, to name just a few. Each week was like opening an inter-dimensional space wormhole that flung open all of TV land, and you never knew who was going to spill out onto the screen.

Made into a feature film in 1998, Lost in Space was rebooted as a hit Netflix series in 2018. The show concluded in 2021 with its third season, starring Maxwell Jenkins, Molly Parker, Toby Stephens, Taylor Russell, Mina Sundwall and Parker Posey. 

In all its later incarnations, Lost in Space got darker, more somber, a lot more dramatic—and much less fun. The original continues to fascinate, however, as a groundbreaking, trendsetting time capsule of 1960s free-spirited, freeze-framed, groove-tube space funk. And the actors in the original series will always have a place in our Space TV Hall of Fame.

The cast and crew of the Jupiter II went on to other projects after Lost in Space “landed” in 1968.

Click through below to see where the Lost in Space cast is now.

Lost in Space Cast: Where Are They Now?

Angela Cartwright

Angela Cartwright (Penny), now in her 70s, had a show-biz career before Lost in Space, playing Danny Thomas’ daughter, Linda, on TV’s The Danny Thomas Show (1957-1964), and little Brigitta Von Trapp in the movie The Sound of Music (1965), for which she did her own singing. But even before that, at age 3, she had already made her movie debut, alongside Paul Newman—no less—as his character’s daughter in his movie Somebody Up Here Likes Me. 

The British-born actress appeared in several TV shows after Lost in Space as well, including My Three Sons, Adam-12 and The Love Boat. She played Theresa Mazzetti in the movie Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)—which was directed by Lost in Space producer Irwin Allen. And if you saw the Netflix reboot of Lost in Space, you likely saw her in the second season, as Dr. Smith’s mother. The “little sis” of actress Veronica Cartwright (she was Lambert in Alien), Cartwright has been a photography buff since she was a teenager, and she’s pursued her hobby professionally as an adult, publishing several books and opening a gallery of her work.

Related: What Is Lost in Space's Angela Cartwright Doing Now?

Mark Goddard

Mark Goddard (hunky Major Don West) passed away in 2023 at age 87 of pulmonary fibrosis. After Lost in Space, Goddard appeared in various TV shows of the ’70s and ’80s and had recurring roles in the soap operas One Life to Live, The Doctors and General Hospital. 

The dashingly handsome former high school basketball and baseball star got his first acting job—a role on the TV Western Johnny Ringo—after only three weeks in Hollywood. A distant cousin of Robert H. Goddard, the pioneer of modern rocketry, he eventually left Hollywood to earn a college degree in special education. He then taught for 20 years back in his home state of Massachusetts. 

Goddard returned to the screen for a cameo appearance in the 1998 movie reboot of the TV show that made him famous. His 2009 memoir was titled, appropriately enough, To Space and Back.

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Marta Kristen

Marta Kristen (older daughter Judy Robinson), now 79, was taken from a Norway orphanage to be raised by adoptive parents in Michigan before relocating to Hollywood. When offered her first role, the part of the nymphet temptress in the movie Lolita (1962), her parents wouldn’t allow it, and the role eventually went—and brought notoriety—to young Sue Lyon. But she did get her early start in TV episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Leave it to Beaver and My Three Sons. 

After Lost in Space, she worked in TV commercials (doing spots for Clairol, Doctor Pepper, Golden Graham, Diet Tab, Sony TVs, Vaseline Intensive Care hand lotion and Advil), many other TV shows and theater, and popped into the movie Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) as Loreili, the mermaid. Today she makes appearances at sci-fi conventions. In 2016 she was among a large gathering of former child actors contributing career memorabilia for auction to benefit A Minor Consideration, a Hollywood organization assisting some of the industry’s youngest performers.

June Lockhart

June Lockhart (wife and mom Maureen Robinson), 98, had other memorable TV roles in Lassie and Petticoat Junction. The Emmy and Tony-winning actress got her start in 1938, performing (uncredited) at age 8 as Belinda Cratchit alongside her show-biz parents in the movie A Christmas Carol. 

In addition to her two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she also has an Exceptional Public Achievement Medal from NASA for continuing to inspire the public’s interest in space, beginning with Lost in Space and continuing as a volunteer spokesperson for NASA and the space program; she’s the first actress to ever receive the honor. 

“I have so many friends among the astronaut group saying that watching Lost in Space as little boys made them know what they wanted to do,” she says. “It’s astonishing to know that it inspired so many people, but it’s lovely.” 

She has continued to make appearances in recent years on TV shows including Las Vegas, Cold Case and The Drew Carey Show. And she’ll always be television’s coolest space mom.

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Bill Mumy

Bill Mumy (son Will Robinson), 70, has worked on more than 400 TV shows; narrated over 50 episodes of A&E’s Biography series; voiced many other television and commercial projects (including spots for Bud Ice, Farmers Insurance, Ford, Blockbuster, Twix, Oscar Meyer and McDonalds); produced and written Space Castles, a Nickelodeon comedy series; written dozens of songs; released several solo music CDs; and written for Marvel Comics. 

He was prolific even as a child star, appearing as a tyke on three memorable episodes of the original Twilight Zone; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Perry Mason; The Fugitive; and Bewitched—in the episode “Junior Executive,” he played a pint-sized version of Darrin Stevens. And in the 1965 movie Dear Brigitte, he was a child mathematical genius with a mad crush on French sexpot Brigitte Bardot (playing herself). 

As a member of the quirky rock duo Barnes and Barnes in the late 1970s, he found worldwide cult fame with the song “Fish Heads,” which Rolling Stone ranked 57th on its list of Top Videos of All Time. Mumy says the fish he and his partner purchased at the Santa Monica market—to decapitate for the all-day video shoot—created a memorably “odiferous event.”

In 2018 he appeared in the pilot episode of the Netflix Lost in Space reboot, as Dr. Z. Smith, in homage to Jonathan Harris’ character on the original series. You can order Mumy’s music, books and other memorabilia at billmumy.com.

Jonathan Harris

Jonathan Harris (Dr. Zachary Smith) died in 2002 at the age of 87 of an arterial blood clot. A character actor who became a TV icon as the duplicitous, fussy stowaway doc, Harris was born Jonathan Charasuchin in the Bronx to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. Detesting his Yiddish accident, he cultivated a dapper English lilt by watching British B-movies as a child and developing an interest in Broadway, Shakespeare, Latin, and romantic poetry. 

Earning a degree in pharmacology from Fordham University and working briefly in drugstores before changing his last name to Harris and heading to Hollywood, he went on to appear in some 500 TV shows, including The Twilight Zone, Bonanza (he played Charles Dickens!) and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett. 

After the Jupiter II landed, he taught drama, and one of his pupils was action star Chuck Norris—who always credited Harris with teaching him proper diction by sticking his fingers down Norris’ throat. The macho-man actor—best known for the Walker, Texas Ranger franchise, Delta Force and other movies with titles like Lone Wolf McQuade, Forced Vengeance and An Eye for an Eye—has noted that Harris was the only person in the world he would have allowed to put fingers into his mouth. 

In later years, Harris provided voices for the animated films A Bug’s Life and Toy Story II (he’s Geri, the Cleaner who “restores” Woody).

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Guy Williams

Guy Williams (space dad John Robinson) died in April 1989 at age 65 of a brain aneurysm. Born Armando Joseph Catalano to Sicilian immigrant parents in the Little Italy section of New York City, he worked as a welder and aircraft parts inspector during World War II, then became a fashion model for newspapers and magazines before changing his name to Guy Williams and pursuing an acting career.