Spencer James Milligan (September 10, 1937 – April 18, 2024) was an American actor. He was best known for the role of Rick Marshall, the father of Will and Holly Marshall, on the first two seasons of the 1970s childrenscience fiction TV series,Land of the Lost.

Prior to breaking into proper TV and film, in 1970, Milligan appeared, at age 33, in a United Airlines short tourism film about the City of Chicago, along with Shelley Long, during her modeling days at age 20-21, years before starring in Cheers.

Milligan leftLand of the Lost after the second season due to a dispute with the producers of the show. Milligan wanted his share of any merchandising profits or royalties that the show generated. In a 2009 interview with theAssociated Press, Milligan elaborated:

We had a difference of opinion, let's put it this way, on using my face for stuff and paying me—lunch boxes, compasses—where they were selling them and I thought it was only fair that everyone should get their fair share.^[1]

The show replaced Milligan's character Rick Marshall with Rick's brother Jack Marshall, played by actorRon Harper. Milligan did not return for the brief scene at the beginning of "After-Shock," the first episode of the third season. This scene, which was also used in the opening credits of the third season, showed Rick Marshall being transported out of theLand of the Lost. Jon Kubichan, who both wrote and produced the episode,played the role instead, wearing a wig resembling Milligan's hair and standing with his back to the camera.^[2][3]

Although Spencer Milligan made various guest-starring roles on TV in the 1970s, his career slowed down in the 1980s. During the 1980s, Milligan lived in Malibu. He then relocated to theDallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area in the 1990s, where he taught acting atAdam Roarke's Film Actors Lab (whereLou Diamond Phillips studied). One of Milligan's students was actorBenton Jennings. Milligan eventually moved back to his family's home inWisconsin.^[4] His last known televised acting performance was in 1987, when he appeared onGeneral Hospital.^[5]

In addition to teaching acting, Milligan directed local plays.

Milligan died inSturgeon Bay, Wisconsin on April 18, 2024, at the age of 86.^[6][7]

A partial filmography follows.

• Sleeper (1973) as Jeb Hrmthmg
• The Man From Clover Grove (1975) as Fester McLong
• The Photographer (1974) as Clinton Webber

• Spencer Milligan atIMDb

• 1937 births
• 2024 deaths
• Male actors from Fort Worth, Texas
• American male television actors
• 20th-century American male actors

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