People and Names in Land of the Giants

THE PEOPLE of THE LAND OF THE GIANTS - The Little People of The Spindrift


Captain Steve Burton (crew): played by Gary Conway
Capt. Steve, besides leading the group of 7 little people in terms of keeping them safe - usually preventing one or two from going somewhere - also placed himself in the position of guardian of Earth; he would at times reject or destroy a chance to get back to Earth in order to keep the giants from finding a way there. This, at times, made him look too reactionary and even masochistic. He was also distinguished by the red uniform which he almost always wore.
Actor Conway was best known to sci-fi/horror fans for playing the title character in I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957) and How to Make a Monster (1958). He also produced and starred in The Farmer (1977).
Mark Wilson (passenger): played by Don Matheson
Mark was the rich, self-made man, a smart engineer who, in the early episodes, challenged Capt Steve for the position of top dog of the group. He also looked like Steve's slightly older brother.
Actor Matheson appeared in episodes of previous Irwin Allen series:
in The Sky is Falling & Revolt of the Androids in Lost in Space, and in Deadly Amphibians of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

ABOVE: Capt. Steve Burton, Mark Wilson, Valerie Scott and Alexander Fitzhugh

Barry Lockridge (passenger): played by Stefan Arngrim
Barry was a young teen on his way to live with cousins after his parents had been killed on Earth. He was usually looking after the dog, Chipper, and hanging out with Fitzhugh.
Arngrim switched to music/rock 'n roll in the seventies but returned to acting later. He had small roles in episodes of Millennium, Seven Days, the new Flash Gordon and the new V.

Co-pilot Dan Erickson (crew): played by Don Marshall
Dan usually backed up Capt. Steve and had kind of a short temper, being prone to outbursts and getting excited (though the other males in the group almost matched him).
Actor Marshall played another crew member in the episode The Galileo Seven on Star Trek TOS; he also starred in The Thing With Two Heads (1972) and Terminal Island (1973), as well as in a 2-part episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Valerie Scott (passenger): played by Deanna Lund
Valerie was another rich passenger and kind of spoiled & mischievous in the early episodes, but matured into a team player.
Actress Lund played one of the girl robots in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), and had a role in Dimension 5 (1966). She also had roles in a couple of Batman episodes and, later, in an episode of The Incredible Hulk series.

Betty Hamilton (crew): played by Heather Young
Betty was the stewardess on the The Spindrift ship. She was a nice girl who usually tried to play peacemaker and wanted all to get along.
Heather had roles on an episode of Batman and one in The Time Tunnel (Town of Terror); she later was in an episode of Galactica 1980.

Alexander Fitzhugh (passenger): played by Kurt Kasznar
Fitzhugh was the resident troublemaker, especially in the early episodes when he was a genuinely devious character (a variation on the Dr. Smith character of Lost in Space). Like Dr. Smith, he became more of a comic foil after a few episodes and got everyone into trouble by being clumsy or just behaving stupidly. He was, however, an educated, well-informed man and, so, not as 2-dimensional as some would believe.
Actor Kasznar was easily the most experienced of the group, with a career that stretched back to the silent days. He had roles in 55 Days at Peking (1963), Casino Royale (1966) and The Ambushers (1967-up against Matt Helm). He died in 1979. One of his last roles was in a 2-part episode of Wonder Woman.