Jonathan Harris, most known for his performance as Bradford Webster in The Third Man, was born in Bronx, New York, on the 6th of November 1914, but died in California on November 3, 2002. Other important roles in his career include playing numerous villains in sci-fi shows. Although he was always 'evil' character, Harris had gathered a solid fanbase during his long career as a stage and TV series actor, and all his devoted fans will remember him as the ever funny evil cowardice Dr. Zachary Smith from Lost in Space.
Jonathan was born Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin in a Russian-Jewish family; he was the second of three children. His childhood very well resembles Dr. Zachary Smith, as Harris was an outsider even among his friends, but it seems that Harris found solace in his to-be wife Gertrude Bregman. During his teens, Harris was interested in opera, poetry and novels, among those was Shakespeare, supposedly an influence on his acting career. He changed his surname to Harris at the age of 17. At the age of 22, he became a graduate in pharmacology and worked at several drugstores at the short peak of his pharmacy career.
When Harris was 24, he put together a fake resume and auditioned at an acting troupe, and was successful. The troupe was where he went to receive the leading role in the play The Heart of a City and built the base from which he was to become a successful television actor. Harris's debut on television came in 1949, where he starred a guest episode in The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre. Harris then became a popular guest actor for numerous shows, such as The Twilight Zone, Get Smart!, but Harris's first true breakthrough came with his role of Bradford Webster in The Third Man. The show that featured Harris from 1959 to 1965 arguably set the course of his future career; and to be blunt, rightfully so.
When Lost in Space was introduced in 1965, everyone had seen Harris already, but he didn't really have a "television face", as most of his acts on television up to date were merely guest roles. In Lost in Space, Harris worked among such names as Mark Goddard and Bill Mumy, with whom he developed a significant friendship. The show gained cult following, although competitive series such as the recently created Batman made Lost in Space's ratings less impressive. After the show was abruptly canceled in 1968, Harris continued appearing in guest roles, but shifted the course of his career to voice acting. His performance as a voice actor included numerous famous feature films, particularly Toy Story 2 and Bug's Life. He also taught voice acting, and was the voice acting tutor of Chuck Norris.
Jonathan Harris was a true TV mastermind. Although rarely seen in the front acting, his unique, eccentric characters, the characteristics of which represent Harris's own life quite deeply, were truly famous. Harris will be remembered for his Television-unseen individualist approach, fabulous one-liners, which have stayed in the vocabularies of many people of his time, and most of all, his acting, which inspired countless future comic villains, and will do so in the future.
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