Happy 70th, Bill Mumy

Bill Mumy (Charles William Mumy Jr, b. 1954) turns 70 years old today. For someone who has nearly 100 screen credits accumulated over nearly half a century, and has distinguished himself in numerous other fields, Mumy is WAY too over identified with a single character, and it’s mighty unjust. I know it’s a heresy but I’ll go ahead and say it anyway: sometimes the public are assholes. So it’ll be my perverse pleasure here to de-emphasize that one particular credit people that like to reduce him to,

One reason I take pleasure in doing this is that you can argue that the show in question is not his most important credit. For example, Mumy starred, or co-starred in several movies: including Dear Brigitte (1965) with Jimmy Stewart, Glynis Johns, Ed Wynn, and Brigitte Bardot; Rascal (1969); and Bless the Beasts and Children (1971), a favorite of mine when I was a kid. Mumy’s also one of the supporting cast of Papillon (1973) with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.

As one half of the music duo Barnes and Barnes, Mumy co-wrote and performed the 1978 novelty single “Fish Heads”, a favorite of Dr. Demento and voted one of the best rock videos of all time.

Mumy was also a regular cast member on three TV series. In addition to playing the all too memorable Will Robinson on Lost in Space (1965-68), he was also a regular on Sunshine (1975, a show I loved), and Babylon 5 (1994-98). As a child actor, he had been cast in the part of Eddie on The Munsters (how cool would it have been to have had a kid whose name was actually “Mumy” on that show?) but his parents ultimately decided to pass on his behalf, due to the long hours in make-up. The part went to Butch Patrick, of course. There has been an unfortunate tendency to equate the careers of the two actors, helped along I believe by Howard Stern and others, who like to trot out former child stars and tease them. (Others included Mason Reese, Danny Bonaduce, and Dana Plato, who promptly killed herself after an appearance on his show).

We’re not yet done illustrating how Mumy’s career is not reduceable to “former child star”, but here is where we will mention some of those early performances. Perhaps his most famous guest starring role was that Twilight Zone episode where he banishes irritating adults to the “cornfield”. An appearance in the 1983 Twilight Zone movie is what brought him back to acting after a hiatus of a few years. As a young person, Mumy was also on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wagon Train, Bewitched, Ozzie and Harriet, The Virginian, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Rockford Files. He was on Jack Benny’s show, too!

Mumy was a friend of the late Miguel Ferrer; the pair collaborated on a number of published comic book projects, and were in bands together. Mumy plays seven musical instruments and has performed and recorded with America, Rick Springfield, and numerous other musical outfits.

He has narrated over 50 installments of the A & E show Biography, and has voiced characters are numerous animated cartoon shows like Ren and Stimpy, Animaniacs, Scooby Doo, and others.

Anyway, one of my favorite things to do on social media is banish annoying people to the cornfield. Stand warned: anyone clueless enough to blunder onto my radar about Will Robinson and Lost in Space is liable to wind up disappeared. Not because I’m some kind of particular friend or fan of Bill Mumy’s, but because it is the appropriate punishment for being obvious and boring.