Jonathan Daniel Harris (né 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. 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.
The second of three children, Harris was born on November 6, 1914, in the Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants Jennie (née Buchowitsky) and Sam Charasuchin. His father worked in Manhattan's Garment District. 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.
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, had cultivated an English one in its place by watching British B-movies at the arts theater. He also developed interests in archaeology, Latin, romantic poetry and Shakespeare.
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.
Harris earned a degree in pharmacology from Fordham University, from which he graduated in 1936.
Harris was married to his high school sweetheart, Gertrude Bregman, for over sixty years, from 1938 until his death in 2002. They had one child.
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. He was hired by the director, Richard Brooks, to appear in a series of 26 plays the company performed in the summer of 1940.
In 1942, Harris won the leading role of a Polish officer in the Broadway play The Heart of a City, adopting a Polish accent. In 1946, he starred in A Flag Is Born, opposite Quentin Reynolds and Marlon Brando.
Harris was a popular character actor for 30 years on television, making his first guest appearance on the episode "His Name Is Jason" on The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre in 1949. The role led to other roles in such series as The Web, Lights Out, Goodyear Television Playhouse, two episodes of Hallmark Hall of Fame, Armstrong Circle Theatre, three episodes of Studio One, Telephone Time, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Climax!, Outlaws, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, The Rogues, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and Zorro, among many others. He was in the film Botany Bay (1953).
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 of 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 and "Twenty Two", in which he played the doctor of a woman with a recurring nightmare. 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 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!"