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 film appearances, as well as voiceovers.[1] Two of his best-known roles were as the prudent 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.[2] Near the end of his career, he provided voices for the animated features A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2.[3]
The second of three children, Harris was born on November 6, 1914, in the Bronx, New York City, to Sam and Jennie Charasuchin, Russian-Jewish immigrants. His father worked in Manhattan's Garment District.[4] The family lived in a six-story tenement, and his mother often took in boarders to make ends meet, giving them Jonathan's room and bed and relegating him to sleep on the dining room chairs. By age 12 he was working in a pharmacy as a stockboy.[citation needed]
While there was little money for luxuries, Jonathan's father made an effort to expand his son's cultural horizons with occasional trips to see Yiddish theatre and by listening to opera on the dining room radio. Young Jonathan was enthralled. Although he could seldom afford tickets to them, Broadway plays were also an early interest. He detested his Bronx accent and by high school cultivated an English one in its place, watching British B-movies at the arts theater. He also developed interests in archaeology, Latin, romantic poetry and Shakespeare.[1]
Jonathan legally changed his name from "Charasuchin" to "Harris" before entering college after a year-long standoff with his father, who disagreed with the change.[5]
Harris was married to his high school sweetheart, Gertrude Bregman, from 1938 until his death.[6] They had one child, Richard, born 1942.[6]
Acting career
Stage
Acting was Harris's first love. In 1939, at age 24, he prepared a fake résumé and tried out for a repertory company at the Millpond Playhouse on Long Island.[7][8] He was hired by the director, Richard Brooks, to appear in a series of 26 plays the company performed in the summer of 1940.[9]
Harris landed a co-starring role opposite Michael Rennie in The Third Man, from 1959 to 1965. He played Bradford Webster, an eccentric, cowardly assistant. Half the episodes were shot in London, England; the rest were filmed in Hollywood.
Harris appeared in two 1961 episodes of The Twilight Zone, including a heroic role in "The Silence", in which he ended up defending a young man challenged to be silent for a whole year at a prestigious gentleman's club. Harris also portrayed Charles Dickens in a 1963 episode of Bonanza.
From 1963 to 1965, Harris co-starred in the sitcom The Bill Dana Show. He played Mr. Phillips, the pompous manager of a posh hotel who is constantly at odds with his bumbling Bolivian bellhop, the Bill Dana character José Jiménez. Don Adams rounded out the cast as an inept house detective, a character whose distinctive mannerisms and catchphrases would soon carry over into his Maxwell Smart role on Get Smart. In similar fashion, several of Harris's catchphrases from the series, such as "Oh, the pain!", along with the character's mannerisms and delivery, became part of the Dr. Zachary Smith character on Lost in Space.
Harris played a similarly pompous diplomat on Get Smart in 1970. His female assistant was named Zachary. Harris also guest-starred on The Ghost & Mrs. Muir.
Dr. Zachary Smith in Lost in Space
Harris as "Zeno" in the Lost in Space episode "West of Mars" (1966).Harris as Doctor Smith (1967).
Harris was cast over two other actors for the role of Dr. Zachary Smith, the evil and conniving enemy 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 of 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. 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 to add more comedy because he felt that his strength was in portraying a comic villain. Due to Harris's popularity on the show, Irwin Allen approved his changes and gave him carte blanche as a writer. Harris subsequently stole the show, mainly via a seemingly never-ending series of alliterative insults directed toward The Robot, which soon worked their way into popular culture. Dr. Smith's best-known tropes included spitefully calling The Robot epithets such as "bubble-headed booby" and "clamoring clod".
According to Bill Mumy, Harris moved quickly to develop the character:
"And we'd start working on a scene together, and he'd have a line, and then in the script I'd have my reply, and he'd say, 'No, no, no, dear boy. No, no, no. Before you say that, The Robot will say this, this, this, this, this, this, and this, and then, you'll deliver your line.' 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 canceled in 1968 after 83 episodes, despite protests from its fans.[citation needed]
In a 1971 episode of Night Gallery, titled "Since Aunt Ada Came to Stay", Harris played Professor Nicholas Porteus, an expert on witchcraft.[11]
His last series guest-starring role was on an episode of Fantasy Island. He also starred as the character Fagan in the first episode of the science fiction series Ark II.[citation needed]
Harris taught drama, and was Chuck Norris's vocal coach for many years. Norris credited Harris for teaching him "how to speak" by sticking his fingers in Norris's mouth, adding that Harris was the only person in the world he would allow to do that.[12]
Typecasting as a villain
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. Approached by Allen a second time, to star in a children's series, Jumbalina and the Teeners, Harris turned it down.
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 which Harris and Reilly portrayed malcontents producing a children's television show. Harris played the director and Reilly the titular host, Uncle Croc. In the cartoon Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987), he played lackey and sycophant Mortdred to the main villain Darkstorm.[citation needed]
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?"[citation needed]
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.[13]
Lost in Space reunion appearances
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.[citation needed] Harris made a number of other convention appearances with other cast members of Lost in Space, including a 1996 appearance at Disney World.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Harris refused to make a cameo appearance in the 1990s re-imagined film version of Lost in Space (1998), unlike many of his co-stars in the original series. He announced: "I've never played a bit part in my life and I'm not going to start now!" However, he did make promotional appearances for the film:
Harris reprised his role as Dr. Smith in the one-hour television special Lost in Space Forever,[citation needed] and Harris and the rest of the surviving television cast appeared on the inside cover of an issue of TV Guide.
In April 1998, Harris appeared as a guest on the talk show Biography, on which Harris fondly reminisced about his Lost in Space days, admitting he would stay up nights thinking of new alliterative insults for The Robot ("bellicose bumpkin," "bubble-headed booby") because he enjoyed the interaction so much.
For an appearance by Harris, talk show host Conan O'Brien brought one of his characters, Pimp-Bot 5000 (a "robot pimp"; half 1950s’ robot, half 1970s’ street pimp), onto the set, and Harris went into character as Dr. Smith and proceeded to insult Pimp-Bot.[14] Shying away from his usual dry, sarcastic, and often self-deprecating style, Conan confessed to Harris that he brought him on the show just to have him insult Pimp-Bot, and that the moment made his day.
In late 2002, Harris and the rest of the surviving cast of the television series were preparing to film an NBC two-hour film titled Lost in Space: The Journey Home; however, the project was unable to proceed after Harris' death.[15][16]
Death and posthumous tributes
After he had been in a hospital for a back injury, Harris died of a blood clot on November 3, 2002, three days before his 88th birthday.[6]
As a tribute to Harris, writer/director John Wardlaw wrote an additional scene for the film The Bolt Who Screwed Christmas, which included Harris's final performance before his death. Wardlaw asked Lost in Space co-stars Bill Mumy, Angela Cartwright, and Marta Kristen to contribute their voices to the film. Wardlaw described how the three actors reunited in the recording studio on June 14, 2006:
"This was the first time they had all been together in something unrelated to Lost in Space and it was a blast. They listened to what Harris had recorded and there were laughs and some tears."[13]
Nearly five years later, Harris' wife died of natural causes, at age 93, on August 28, 2007.[6]
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↑ Aaker, Everett (2006). "Jonathan Harris". Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters: All Regular Cast Members in American Crime and Mystery Series, 1948–1959. McFarland. p.252. ISBN9780786424764.
↑ Abraham, Jeff (June 14, 2001). Jonathan Harris, Actor. Television Academy Foundation – The Interviews. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018.
1 2 3 4 5 Pace, Eric (November 5, 2002). "Jonathan Harris, 87, Dr. Smith in 60's TV Series Lost in Space". The New York Times. Jonathan Harris, a versatile character actor perhaps best known for his role as the villainous Dr. Smith in the science-fiction fantasy series Lost in Space on CBS television, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 87 and lived in the Encino section of Los Angeles. He had been hospitalized for a back injury, but died of a blood clot...
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Jonathan Harris (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 19, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
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