Jonathan Harris

An eloquent character actor who would become a celebrated TV camp icon of the late 1960s, Jonathan Harris was born Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin on November 6, 1914, in the Bronx borough of New York City.

Graduated from James Monroe High School in The Bronx, New York, in 1931.

Attended the same high school as Estelle Reiner (future mother of famous actors Rob Reiner and Lucas Reiner), then known as Estelle Lobost, who graduated a year behind him, in 1932.

The son of impoverished Russian-Jewish émigrés, his father worked in the garment industry and young Jonathan contributed to the family income by working as a box boy in a pharmacy at age 12, which inspired him enough to, after graduating from James Monroe High School, earn a pharmacy degree at Fordham University in 1936. Jonathan's desire to act, however, was quite strong at an early age and it proved overwhelming in the end, forsaking a steady pharmaceutical career for the thoroughly unsteady work in the theater. Self-trained to shake his thick Bronx accent by watching British movies and pursuing interests in Shakepeare and archaeology, Jonathan changed his surname to one much easier to pronounce.

After performing in over 100 plays in stock companies nationwide, he finally made an inauspicious debut as a Polish officer in the play "Heart of a City" in 1942 and also entertained World War II troops in the South Pacific.

Other New York plays during this war-era decade would include "Right Next to Broadway" (1944), "A Flag Is Born" (1946), "The Madwoman of Chaillot (1948) and "The Grass Harp" (1952).

Following his introduction to live television drama in 1948, Jonathan ventured off to Hollywood.

After appearing in a number of TV anthologies such as "The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre," "Pulitzer Prize Playhouse," "Betty Crocker Star Matinee," "Goodyear Playhouse," and "Hallmark Hall of Fame," he made his film debut as part of a band of potential mutineers in the film Botany Bay (1952) starring doctor hero Alan Ladd and villainous captain James Mason.

Remaining steadfast in classy anthologies dramas such as "Armstrong Circle Theatre," "Studio One in Hollywood," "Matinee Theatre," "Schlitz Playhouse," "Climax," "Colgate Theatre," "Kraft Theatre," "General Electric Theatre," as well as the role of Exton in a TV-movie version of King Richard II (1954), he began appearing in more popular TV programs such as "Zorro," "Father Knows Best," "Outlaws," "The Law and Mr.

Met Guy Williams on the set of Zorro (1957), years before he co-starred with him on Lost in Space (1965).

He wouldn't make another film for another five years, with a supporting role as Lysias in the biblical story of Simon Peter in The Big Fisherman (1959) starring Howard Keel. It was television, however, that would make keep Jonathan working and make a stronger impression.

Jones," "The Lloyd Bridges Show," "Bonanza" and "The Twilight Zone," Jonathan got his first taste of TV success and audiences got to witness the fusty, cowardly, uppity side of Jonathan in two archetypal regular roles: as cowardly assistant Bradley Webster in the crime series The Third Man (1959) starring Michael Rennie and as persnickety hotel manager Mr.

Phillips in the short-lived sitcom The Bill Dana Show (1963) starring the Latin-speaking comic as a bellhop. This culminated in the TV regular role that would make Jonathan a cult icon, as Dr.

Zachary Smith, the dastardly, effete space ship stowaway on Lost in Space (1965). Harris, along with his straight man robot, easily stole the show week after week as he botched and mangled all the good intentions of the Robinson family to get back home to Earth. Jonathan would find himself severely typecast as a plummy villain for the remainder of his career, and was seen usually in cryptic form in such TV shows as "Land of the Giants," "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "Bewitched," "Get Smart," "Love, American Style," "McMilland & Wife," "Bonanza," "Sanford & Son," "Night Gallery," "Ve$as," "Fantasy Island," etc.

Jonathan's crisp, eloquent voice was also used frequently with great relish in commercials and for sci-fi and animated series purposes -- The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968), Battlestar Galactica (1978), Foofur (1986), Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987), Problem Child (1993), The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat (1995), Freakazoid! (1995) and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000).

He did reappear in the brief sci-fi series Space Academy (1977), as Commander Gampu, leader of a cadet space academy in the year 3732. This character, however, was the polar opposite of Mr. Smith -- wise, honorable and brave.

Died just three days before he would have had his 88th birthday. That same day, his family and friends attended his funeral.

His voice was also used for the animated features Happily Ever After (1989), A Bug's Life (1998) and Toy Story 2 (1999).

Although he reprised his most infamous role as Dr. Smith in a one-hour TV special Lost in Space Forever (1998) in 1998, he refused a cameo in the motion picture version of Lost In Space (1998) later that year, unlike June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright, the other stars of the 1960s series. With typically cryptic Dr. Smith flair, he announced that if he could not play his own role in the movie, he wanted nothing to do with it. Interestingly, Gary Oldman portrayed Dr. Smith in a curiously subdued fashion.

A drama teacher and vocal coach in later years, Harris died of a blood clot to the heart on November 3, 2002, just three days before his 88th birthday.

His widow, Gertrude Bergman, died on August 28, 2007, at age 93, just 5 years after his death.