Comparatively speaking, this installment shall qualify as lighter fare to one’s loyal readers.

The author is cognizant some regular visitors may not remember the subject of this installment or perhaps never had the opportunity to view the classic show that brought this particular actor to public prominence. During the 1960’s, the late veteran Hollywood character actor, Johnathan Harris, added what was perhaps the only saving grace or entertainment value to an otherwise short-lived and pathetically juvenile science fiction and fantasy television series, entitled “Lost in Space”.

Although over the course of his career, Harris compiled an impressive resume, starring on Broadway and on the silver screen from decades before, it wasn’t until he assumed the iconic television role of Lost in Space’s Doctor Zachary Smith, the villainous scoundrel with a heart of gold, that he gained celebrated renown and became a recognizable celebrity.

But, Harris was hiding a secret, and as an accomplished man of the theater prior to working in the medium of television, he had certainly learned all the necessary tricks of the theater’s trade in creating inscrutable masks for an array of characters.

The persona of Jonathan Harris, those eccentric affectations that became synonymous with the man who allegedly grew up in the Bronx, New York, but nonetheless rose to fame and fortune in the theater and then on to starring on American television, were nothing more than purposefully created theatrical flourishes.

Indeed, Harris was yet another example of a celebrated actor hiding behind a well-crafted mask.

As it turns out, however, in the case of Harris, one speculates he harbored personal reasons in choosing to adopt a pseudonym while starring as the incomparable Doctor Zachary Smith.

And perhaps, given Harris’s genuine identity, his reasons for doing so were by no means sinister in nature. Rather, they had everything to do with preserving what he perceived to be his theatrical and artistic integrity. Continue reading “Post-Modern Reality Simulation Gets Lost in Space” →