Jonathan Harris facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jonathan Harris
Jonathan Harris, c. 1967
Born	Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin (1914-11-06)November 6, 1914 The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Died	November 3, 2002(2002-11-03) (aged 87) Encino, California, U.S.
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1938–2002
Spouse(s)	Gertrude Bregman ​ (m. 1938)​
Children	1

Jonathan Harris (born Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin; November 6, 1914 – November 3, 2002) was an American character actor whose career included more than 500 television and movie appearances, as well as voiceovers. Two of his best-known roles were as the timid accountant Bradford Webster in the television version of The Third Man and the fussy villain Dr. Zachary Smith of the 1960s science fiction series Lost in Space. Near the end of his career, he provided voices for the animated features A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2.

Early life and career

The second of three children, Harris was born to a poor family on November 6, 1914, in the Bronx, New York City. His family resided in a six-tenant apartment complex. From the age of 12, he worked as a pharmacy clerk.

While there was little money for luxuries, Jonathan's father took efforts to expand his son's cultural horizons. This included trips to the Yiddish Theatre, where he was encouraged by his father to listen to opera. Young Jonathan was fascinated. He discarded his Bronx accent and began to cultivate more sophisticated English tones. Although he could seldom afford tickets to them, Broadway plays were also an early interest. As a teenager, he also developed interests in archaeology, Latin, romantic poetry and Shakespeare.

In 1931, at age 16, he graduated from James Monroe High School. He had difficulty fitting in with peers, with the exception of his girlfriend and future wife, Gertrude Bregman.

He legally changed his name from "Charasuchin" to "Harris" before entering college. Harris earned a degree in pharmacology from Fordham University, from which he graduated in 1936. For a time, worked in various drugstores. He married in 1938.

Acting was Harris's first love. At age 24, he prepared a fake résumé and tried out for a company at the Millpond Playhouse in Long Island, New York and appeared in several of this troupe's plays, prior to landing a spot in the company. Harris was a popular character actor for 30 years on television, making his first guest appearance on an episode of The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre in 1949 among many others roles during his career.

Dr. Zachary Smith in Lost in Space

Harris as Doctor Smith, 1967

Harris was cast over two other actors for the role of Dr. Zachary Smith, the evil and conniving double agent on Lost in Space. The character did not appear in the original 1965 pilot episode for CBS, nor did The Robot. The series was already in production when Harris joined the cast, and starring/co-starring billing had already been contractually assigned. Harris successfully negotiated to receive "Special Guest Star" billing on every episode.

Bill Mumy said about Harris' role in his first episode, "It was actually implied that this villainous character that sabotaged the mission and ended up with us was going to be killed off after a while." Mumy added, "Jonathan played him as written, which was this really dark, straight-ahead villain."

The series was successful upon its debut, and midway through the first season, Harris began to rewrite his own dialogue. Due to Harris's popularity on the show, Irwin Allen approved his changes and gave him parts as a writer. Harris subsequently stole the show, mainly via a seemingly never-ended series of funny insults directed toward The Robot, which soon worked their way into popular culture.

Harris as "Zeno" in the Lost in Space episode "West of Mars," 1966

Dr. Smith's best-known insults included spitefully calling The Robot things such as "bubble-headed booby" and "clamoring clod". According to Bill Mumy, Harris moved quickly to develop the character.'" Mumy said of Harris' portrayal, "He truly, truly single handedly created the character of Dr. Zachary Smith that we know — this man we love to hate, coward who would cower behind the little boy, 'Oh, the pain! Save me, William!' That's all him!"

When the series was renewed for its third and final season, it remained focused on Harris' character, Dr. Smith. While the series was still solidly placed in the middle of the ratings pack, the writers appeared to run out of fresh ideas, and the show was unexpectedly cancelled in 1968 after 83 episodes, despite protests from its fans.

Harris was succeeded in the role of Dr. Smith by Gary Oldman in the 1998 film version, who played the role as a more genuinely menacing and less likeable character than Harris's on television. For the 2018 reboot of Lost in Space as a Netflix original series, Parker Posey was cast as Dr. Zachary Smith, a female using a stolen identity to assume the role of the ship's psychologist.

Harris as Mr. Piper in the Land of the Giants episode "Pay the Piper," 1970

Although he was considered something of a cult icon for the role of Dr. Smith, Harris became typecast as a fey and sometimes campy villain. For example, Irwin Allen cast Harris as a villainous "Pied Piper" in an episode of Land of the Giants.

In 1970, Harris played the role of another not-so-likeable villain, the Bulmanian Ambassador in the Get Smart episode "How Green Was My Valet".

Harris also provided the voice of the Cylon character Lucifer, an antagonist on the original 1978 ABC version of Battlestar Galactica.

In 1970, Harris played the role of another not-so-likeable villain, the Bulmanian Ambassador in the Get Smart episode "How Green Was My Valet". Harris was also a co-star, alongside Charles Nelson Reilly, in the series Uncle Croc's Block. In the cartoon Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, he played lackey to the main villain.

Voice roles

Harris viced Manny in a Bug Life 1998

Harris spent much of his later career as a voice actor, heard in television commercials as well as cartoons such as Channel Umptee-3, The Banana Splits, My Favorite Martian, Rainbow Brite, Darkwing Duck, Happily Ever After, Problem Child, Spider-Man, A Bug's Life, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Toy Story 2. He also did voiceover work in an episode of the animated Superman series.

In multiple episodes of the 1995–1997 cartoon series Freakazoid!, Harris reprised the cowardly Smith character and dialogue under the name "Professor Jones," uttering Smith's catchphrase "Oh, the pain!" Emphasizing the target of the parody, numerous characters would ask him, "Weren't you on a TV show with a robot?"

In 2001, a year prior to his death, he recorded voice work for the animated theatrical short The Bolt Who Screwed Christmas. The film, Harris's last work, was released posthumously in 2009.

Lost in Space reunion appearances

Fellow cast memmbers of Lost in Space, Billy Mumy and Angela Cartwright 1965

In 1990, Harris reunited with the cast of Lost in Space in a filmed celebration of the 25th anniversary of the series' debut, at an event attended by more than 30,000 fans. Harris made a number of other convention appearances with other cast members of Lost in Space, including a 1996 appearance at Disney World.

• On June 14, 1995, Harris and other cast members appeared in The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen, a television tribute to Irwin Allen, the creator of Lost in Space, who had died in 1991.
• Harris reprised his role as Dr. Smith in the one-hour television special Lost in Space Forever
• In April 1998, Harris appeared as a guest on the talk show Biography, on which Harris fondly reminisced about his Lost in Space days
• In late 2002, Harris and the rest of the surviving cast of the television series were preparing to film a movie titled Lost in Space: The Journey Home; however, it was was unable to proceed after Harris's death

Personal life and death

Harris was married to his childhood sweetheart, Gertrude Bregman, from 1938 until his death in 2002. She died of natural causes, at age 93, on August 28, 2007. They had one child, Richard, born 1942.

Throughout his life, Harris had a number of hobbies — gourmet cooking, watching movies, reading, traveling, painting, magic, playing piano (he played a piano teacher in a 1968 episode of Bewitched), listening to opera, spending time with children, gardening and knitting. He also did some dancing in his spare time.

Two months before the reunion TV movie Lost in Space: The Journey Home was set to film, Harris was taken to the hospital with what he thought was a back problem. On November 3, 2002, Harris died of a blood clot to the heart. He was 87 years old, just three days shy of his 88th birthday.

Harris was interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, in Westwood Village, in Los Angeles. Eulogists at his funeral included long time friends: director Arthur Hiller; former 20th Century Fox television executive and producer Kevin Burns; and fellow Lost in Space castmate Bill Mumy.

Filmography

Film

Television

See also

In Spanish: Jonathan Harris para niños