Mark Goddard
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| Mark Goddard | |
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 Goddard at Western Film Fair in July 2006 |
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| Born | July 24, 1936 |
Mark Goddard (born July 24, 1936, Lowell, Massachusetts) is an American film actor who has starred in a number of television shows. He is most widely known for his role as Major Don West in the series Lost in Space.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Mark Goddard was born Charles Goddard in Lowell, Massachusetts, the youngest of five children, and raised in Scituate, Massachusetts.
He led both his High School baseball and basketball teams to the state championship finals. Mark dreamed of becoming a basketball player but eventually turned to acting. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. After two years, he moved to Los Angeles.
[edit] Early acting career
Goddard's good looks and charisma were hard to resist, and in 1959 after just three weeks in Hollywood, he landed a role in the television series, Johnny Ringo playing the character of Cully. At this time, he changed his name to Mark Goddard at the suggestion of his friend and mentor, Chuck Connors. He was also signed for a role lasting 3 years in the TV show The Detectives.
[edit] Lost in Space
The next role he played gained him the most popularity. Mark was hard not to notice in his form fitting space suits on the TV series Lost in Space. He played the daring and delicious Major Don West. The original pilot however, was a lot different from the actual show. Many fans feel this was the best episode. In it, Mark played a doctor instead of just a pilot, and was in more scenes then his character usually was in the series. The pilot was much more serious and had more scary parts than the show which became (to its demise) more of a comedy than a science fiction. Fans were not very happy when his role was cut down drastically. He was the character everyone wanted to see more of.
[edit] Later acting career
Mark also starred in roles on series like Mod Squad and The Fall Guy. At one point he moonlighted as a Hollywood agent. In 1976 he starred as politician 'Edward Fleming' in the movie Blue Sunshine. Blue Sunshine is a retro sixties type of movie and is considered the most artistic of all Mark's films by his fans. In 1978 he starred with Liza Minnelli in The Act (a Broadway musical).
He was Ted Clayton on One Life to Live and his character on The Doctors killed Alec Baldwin's character. Later Mark also starred as 'Derek Barrington' on General Hospital.
He made a cameo appearance in 1998, in the movie Lost in Space as the general in charge of the Jupiter Mission, and superior officer to his former character, 'Major Don West'.
[edit] Where is he now?
Mark finished college after thirty years and went on to receive his Masters Degree in Education.
He is currently a special education teacher at the F.L. Chamberlain School in Middleborough, Massachusetts.
