Marta Kristen | |
---|---|
Born | Birgit Annalisa Rusanen February 26, 1945 Oslo, Norway |
Other names | Martha Annalise Soderquist |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1960–present |
Spouses |
|
Children | 1 |
Website | www |
Marta Kristen (born February 26, 1945) is a Norwegian-born American actress.
Kristen is best known for her role as Judy Robinson, the oldest child of Professor John Robinson and his wife, Maureen, in the television series Lost in Space (1965–1968). Her character was a young adult, around 20 years of age.
Kristen was born Birgit Annalisa Rusanen in Oslo, Norway, to a Finnish mother and a German soldier father who was killed during World War II. (Her Finnish mother gave up little Birgit to save her the pain of growing up knowing her real parents were part of the Nazi regime or Third Reich.) Birgit spent her first years in an orphanage in Norway, [1] and was then adopted in 1949 by a couple from Detroit, Michigan, Harold Oliver Soderquist [2] and his wife, Bertha, [3] who renamed her Martha Annalise Soderquist. Her adoptive father was a professor of education at Wayne University, also in Detroit. [4] [5] Kristen has one brother, whom her parents also adopted. [6]
In 1959, Kristen moved to the Los Angeles area while her father was on sabbatical leave from his professorship. She remained there with a guardian and graduated from Santa Monica High School. [4]
Reflecting her Scandinavian heritage, Kristen adopted the more European-sounding "Marta" and used Marta Kristen as her stage name. [3] She first appeared in a 1961 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents , "Bang! You're Dead", alongside Billy Mumy, who later co-starred with Kristen in Lost in Space. In 1963, she starred with Tony Dow in "Four Feet in the Morning," an episode of The Eleventh Hour , and as Peggy Meredith on My Three Sons .
Kristen's first film role was in the 1963 Walt Disney production of Savage Sam . She played the role of Lorelei in the 1965 movie Beach Blanket Bingo .
Kristen starred in Lost in Space from its beginning in 1965 until its cancellation in 1968. Afterwards, she had a daughter, born in 1969, and appeared in more than forty television commercials as well as making numerous guest appearances on television shows. She also appeared in the A&E biography Jonathan Harris: Never Fear, Smith Is Here in 2002.
She also made the occasional film appearance in movies such as Terminal Island (1973), Once in 1974, appearing as a bare breasted 'Humanity', and the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980); and had a cameo role in the 1998 movie Lost in Space . Kristen also provided voice work for the 2009 animated theatrical short "The Bolt Who Screwed Christmas" which also included voice work from her Lost in Space co-stars Harris, Mumy, and Angela Cartwright.
Kristen has been married twice. Her first marriage was to Terry Treadwell, a psychologist. [7] [8] [6] She met her second husband, Kevin P. Kane, in 1974 and they married on November 18, 1978.[ citation needed ] They lived in Santa Monica, California, with two rescue dogs [9] until 2016, when Kristen announced on her Facebook page that Kane had died. [10]
Charles William Mumy Jr. is an American actor, writer, producer, and musician. He came to prominence in the 1960s as a child actor whose work included television appearances on Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and a role in the film Dear Brigitte, followed by a three-season role as Will Robinson in the 1960s sci-fi series Lost in Space. Mumy later appeared as lonely teenager Sterling North in the film Rascal (1969) and Teft in the film Bless the Beasts and Children (1971).
Lost in Space is an American science fiction television series created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. Lightly dramatic, sometimes comedic in tone, the series was inspired by the 1812 Johann David Wyss novel The Swiss Family Robinson. The series follows the adventures of the Robinsons, a pioneering family of space colonists who struggle to survive in the depths of space. The show ran for 83 episodes over three seasons. The first season comprised 29 one-hour episodes, filmed in black and white. The 29th episode however had a few minutes of color at the end. Seasons 2 and 3 were shot entirely in color.
Jonathan Harris was an American character actor whose career included more than 500 television and film appearances, as well as voiceovers. 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. Near the end of his career, he provided voices for the animated features A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2.
June Lockhart is an American retired actress, beginning a film career in the 1930s and 1940s in such films as A Christmas Carol and Meet Me in St. Louis. She acted primarily in 1950s and 1960s television and with performances on stage and in film. On two television series, Lassie and Lost in Space, she played mother roles. Lockhart also portrayed Dr. Janet Craig on the CBS television sitcom Petticoat Junction (1968–70). She is a two-time Emmy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner. With a career spanning nearly 90 years, Lockhart is one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
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