Spencer Milligan Dies: ‘Land Of The Lost’ Star Was 86

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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 16 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 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 his kids Will and Holly (Wesley Eure and Kathy Coleman), who are plunged into an alternate world ruled by dinosaurs. The trio explores this strange new land as they struggle to survive and find a way back to the world they knew.

Milligan starred in the show’s first two seasons from 1974-76 before his character accidently escapes the Land of the Lost, sans kids. The series went on for one more season with a new adult star. Known for its campy, low-budget style, the show has gone on to cult status. It spawned a 1990s revival series led by Timothy Bottoms that aired on ABC and later Nickelodeon and a Razzie-winning 2009 feature that starred Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Anna Friel.

Milligan continued to work regularly in TV for the next decade, guested on such popular series as Gunsmoke, Baretta, McCloud, The Bionic Woman, Alice, The Dukes of Hazzard, Vega$, Hardcastle & McCormick and Quincy, M.E. He had a seven-episode arc as Ray Gibbons on General Hospital in 1987.

He also starred as a New York Jets quarterback accused of killing his sister’s attacker in the 1976 TV movie The Keegans and appeared in early-1980s telepics Terror Among Us and Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story.

After his TV career, Milligan taught classes and directed stage plays in his adopted hometown of Sturgeon Bay, WI.

He is survived by his wife, Kerry Milligan, and godchildren Andee Solis, Hilary Williams and Spencer Williams. The family asks that donations in his name be made to Entertainment Community Fund (fka The Actor’s Fund).  

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