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Spencer Milligan, a veteran actor best known for playing Rick Marshall on the 1970s sci-fi series Land of the Lost, has died. He was 86. According to an obituary on the Huehns Funeral Home website, Milligan passed away on Thursday, April 18, 2024. A cause of death was not disclosed. Born on September 10, 1937, in Oak Park, Illinois, Milligan began his career performing on stage in local theater before he enrolled in the Army. Following his honorable discharge from the Army in September 1966, Milligan moved to California, where he started his Hollywood career, appearing in Woody Allen‘s 1973 sci-fi comedy Sleeper and the 1974 thriller film The Photographer. In 1974, he landed his most memorable role as Ranger Rick Marshall, the father of Will and Holly Marshall (Wesley Eure and Kathy Coleman), in Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost. He starred in the first two seasons of the live-action/stop-motion hybrid show, which gained cult favorite status.

Spencer Milligan, who starred for Sid and Marty Krofft as the park ranger and widowed father Rick Marshall on the iconic Saturday morning kids show Land of the Lost, has died. He was 86.

Milligan died April 18 at his home in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, his family announced.

Milligan played the heroic father of youngsters Will Marshall (Wesley Eure) and Holly Marshall (Kathy Coleman) on the first two seasons of NBC’s Land of the Lost, which featured a mix of live-action and stop-motion animated dinosaurs. On the sci-fi show, the family is caught in an earthquake while on a rafting trip and propelled into an alternative universe.

“Sid and Marty Krofft didn’t just cast our TV family, they created, for the cast, a lifelong loving family in real life,” Eure said Wednesday in a statement. “Today I have been overwhelmed by thousands of fans, reaching out to tell me how...

Spencer Milligan, who starred in the 1970s Saturday morning series Land of the Lost from Sid & Marty Krofft and was a regular guest star on TV into the late 1980s, has died. He was 86.

An obituary on the Huehns Funeral Home website said he died April 18 but did not provide details.

Born on September 10, 1937, in Oak Park, Il, Milligan was active in local theater during the 1960s before serving a tour in the Army. His screen career began with a small role as a head-change specialist in Woody Allen’s futuristic 1973 comedy, in which the filmmaker starred with Diane Keaton. He also appeared in the 1974 features The Man from Clover Grove and The Photographer, serving as an associate producer on the latter.

The following year, Milligan was cast as Rick Marshall in the Krofft brothers’ hybrid live-action/stop-motion sci-fi/adventure series Land of the Lost. It focused on Rick and...

Brad Silberling's 2009 comedy/adventure "Land of the Lost" was a big-budget re-imagining of Sid and Marty Krofft's low-rent 1974 TV series of the same name. In the TV show, Marshall (Spencer Milligan), Will (Wesley), and Holly (Kathy Coleman) are on a routine river-rafting expedition when they encounter the biggest earthquake ever documented. They ride a raft through an aperture in the Earth and wind up in the Land of the Lost, a subterranean world ruled by dinosaurs and populated by ape-like proto-humans known as the Pakuni. Later in the series, there are discussions about having sailed through a time doorway, although the Land of the Lost is not prehistoric Earth, but a bizarre nether-realm filled with magic crystals, ineffable high-tech obelisks, and evil lizard people called Sleestaks. "Land of the Lost" was a touchstone of Gen-x kiddie entertainment.

In the PG-13-rated 2009 film (a spoof as much as an...

Ron Harper, who starred on Planet of the Apes and four other short-lived primetime series and on the final season of the beloved kids TV show Land of the Lost during a very busy 15 years on television, has died. He was 91.

Harper died Thursday of natural causes at his home in West Hills, his daughter, Nicole Longeuay, told The Hollywood Reporter.

After understudying for Paul Newman on Broadway, Harper portrayed Det. Bert Kling alongside Norman Fell, Robert Lansing, Gregory Walcott and Gena Rowlands on the 1961-62 NBC cop show 87th Precinct, based on the novels of Ed McBain.

He played Jeff Conway, the husband of Connie Stevens’ character, on the 1964-65 ABC sitcom Wendy and Me, also starring George Burns, who produced the show and appeared as the owner of the apartment building in which the young couple lives.

Next up for Harper were turns as the son of Jean Arthur...

How did a TV show like Land of the Lost ever get made? The 70s saw some really wild television. It seemed like TV networks were willing to try anything at least once. From shows about space age garbage men named Quark, Bionic Couples, or couples who are actually elements like the little known BBC series Sapphire and Steel. Anything and everything was game for at least one season. Children’s programming was even more bizarre, as networks tried to engage kids and teens alike in a time when psychedelic was the norm. When it came to family and kid’s TV though, there was one duo who stood proud with a legacy that would dominate the 70s when it came to family programming and put the variety into the word “variety show”.

That duo was Sid and Marty Krofft, and they would be the creators of some of the...

"Land of the Lost: Season One" is currently available on DVD.

Released on October 13 through Universal Studios Home Entertainment, the three-disc set contains the first 17 episodes of the Saturday morning children's television show. Originally broadcast on NBC from 1974 to 1976, the Sid and Marty Krofft series follows the adventures of the Marshall family as they weather the perils of a savage land.

When family patriarch Rick (Spencer Milligan) takes his children Will and Holly (Wesley Eure, Kathy Coleman) on a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon's Colorado River, he has no idea what's in store for them. While on the river, they meet "the greatest earthquake ever known," which results in them plunging over a cliff into a vortex that sends them to the Land of the Lost, a bizarre wasteland full of otherworldly creatures and people collected over the course of time.

Among the beings of this new...

The new Land of the Lost movie is being released today. It's a parody of the 1974 series and stars Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny McBride, and Jorma Taccone. Though the tone is very different, the film does incorporate a lot of elements from the original TV show. The dreaded Sleestaks, monkey-boy Cha-Ka, and Grumpy the dinosaur are all along for the ride. Unfortunately, some other familiar faces from the TV show didn't make it to the big screen.

The original Land of the Lost TV series stars Spencer Milligan, Wesley Eure, Kathy Coleman, Ron Harper, and Philip Paley as Cha-Ka. It ran on Saturday mornings and revolves around an explorer father and his two children who find themselves transported to a strange alternate universe. The show ran for just three seasons and only 43 episodes were produced.

The show became so popular in syndication that a new version was created in 1991. It stars Timothy Bottoms,...