|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other authors named Jonathan:
|
|
|
|
Author's popularity: 1
Vote:  
|
If you like or dislike this author in general or one or more of their quotes in particular, please give us your feedback by clicking on the icon to vote for, or the icon to vote against them.
|
|
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I enjoyed all the lovely roles I played and never spent time dreaming of playing this or that great role. I was completely involved in what I was doing 'now' - exploring and playing each role to the fullest. In spite of my great respect for the Oliviers, Richardsons, Brandos, De Niros, I was determined to be Jonathan Harris, as good as he can be, and I was, and am. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I wish you well and I hope it will be a huge hit, because that would be very good for me. And if, God forbid, it's a terrible flop, well that would be very good for me. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | That was the first time ever in history that anybody got Special Guest Star. I started that whole nonsense. |
|
Biography
|
Jonathan Harris (November 6 1914–November 3 2002), born Jonathan Charasuchin, was a character actor best known for his TV work as Bradford Webster in The Third Man and Dr. Zachary Smith in Lost in Space.
Born in Bronx, New York to impoverished Russian Jewish emigres, Harris worked in a pharmacy, and received a pharmacology degree from Fordham University. In hopes of becoming an actor, he trained himself against his Bronx accent, and changed his name to make it easier to pronounce. In 1938, he married Gertrude Bergman, to whom he was married for 64 years. He went on to perform over 100 plays with stock companies nationwide, and first appeared on Broadway with Heart of a City in 1942, and toured with the USO in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
He first worked on live television in 1948, and made his film debut with Alan Ladd and James Mason in Botany Bay in 1953. Harris went back to television, appearing in The Third Man as Harry Lime's manservant. In 1965, he first appeared in the role of Dr. Zachary Smith in Lost in Space, where, originally cast as a one-shot character, he easily stole the show from his castmates. Many of his one-liners from the Bill Dana Show were reused in Lost in Space. Although he's considered something of a cult icon for this role, Harris became greatly typecast as a likeable villian. In 1970, Harris played the role of not-so-likeable villian, when he guest starred as the Bulmanian Ambassador in Get Smart episode, How Green was my Valet, aired February 3.
Harris spent most of the remainder of his career as a voice actor, appearing in television commercials as well as cartoons such as The Banana Splits, My Favorite Martians, Rainbow Brite, Darkwing Duck, Happily Ever After, Problem Child, Freakazoid!, A Bug's Life, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and Toy Story 2. He also had several cameo and guest appearances, including Zorro, Bewitched, Ark II, Uncle Croc's Block, and Space Academy.
Harris reprised his role as Dr. Smith in the one-hour TV special Lost in Space Forever in 1998. However, unlike his costars in the original show (June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright) he refused a cameo in the motion picture version of Lost in Space later that year. He announced that if he was unable to play his own role in the movie, he wanted no part in it at all. Instead, Gary Oldman played the part of Dr. Smith.
Harris died on November 3, 2002 in Encino, California of a blood clot to the heart, just days before his 88th birthday.
...(more on Wikipedia)
|
|
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jonathan Harris".
|
|
|