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Vale: Don Matheson

Don Matheson, best known for the 1960s sci-fi Land of the Giants, has died.

2014-07-08_1449Don Matheson, best known as one of the two leading men on 1960s sci-fi Land of the Giants, has died, aged 84.

Matheson played businessman Mark Wilson -one of the stranded “little people”- on the Irwin Allen series, which aired for two seasons from 1968 until 1970.

The Hollywood Reporter notes he died in his sleep after having been diagnosed with lung cancer 10 months ago.

Land of the Giants was set in the year 1983, as a fantasy series revolving around the crew and passengers of the spaceship Spindrift, which on the way to London crashed on a planet whose humanoid inhabitants dwarfed by giant humans, pets and insects. John Williams was the series composer.

A former cop, Matheson and co-star Gary Conway did many of their own stunts, such as being dropped into specimen jars or climbing ropes, filmed from cranes above, while images of the “giants” were captured from the floor with hand-held cameras.

Matheson’s other credits included Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, General Hospital, McHale’s Navy, Death Valley Days, Emergency! The Waltons, Eight Is Enough, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Santa Barbara, Hill Street Blues, Murder She Wrote and 7th Heaven.

Matheson wed another star on Giants, Deanna Lund (“Valerie Scott’), but their marriage ended in divorce.

5 Responses

  1. Happy memories of Sunday afternoons watching Land of the Giants. There’s so many shows that havn’t been seen in decades, this could be a cult hit if screened again.

  2. Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel etc.
    Where can you watch these programs any more?
    Must agree with Aussiecam58 .. would have to be better than the rubbish being served up on SyFy etc.

  3. I am currently watching Land of the Giants, having seen most of season 1, when I came upon Don Matheson’s sad passing.

    Prior to my current viewing of Land of the Giants I got to see his daughter Michelle, a very pretty woman, in a movie that is in my possession Virgin Hunters (aka Test Tube Teens from the Year 2000).

  4. Where are all these old shows??? Surely the major channels can show some of these rather than the crap they serve up. We have less stations back then yet we seem to have had more choice programming.

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