Doctor Smith is Dead

By John Freeman on November 6, 2002

Jonathan Harris

We’re sorry to report Lost in Space legend Doctor Zachary Smith — actor Jonathan Harris — is dead. The 87-year old actor died on Sunday of a blood clot.

He was a veteran of hundreds of films and TV shows, including The Twilight Zone and Bewitched television series and films such as A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2 in which he was the voice of Manny, the Preying Mantis, in the former and the Fixer in the latter. But he is best known as the bumbling villain Doctor Smith from Lost in Space, which ran first on CBS from 1965 to 1968 and is still being shown on the world over in re-runs.

The actor was working to the end. He recently traveled to New York City to commemorate the 16th October Jupiter 2 lift-off celebration.

LostinSpaceTV.com reports that in addition to being interviewed by all and sundry, Harris and the original Robot made a public appearance at the new theme restaurant Television City on Tuesday, 14th October for promote the LIS marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel and the release of the new Trendmasters toy Robot.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.