Marta Kristen was born Birgit Annalisa Rusanen in Oslo, Norway, to a Finnish mother and a German soldier father who was killed during World War II. She was adopted in 1949 by an American couple from Detroit, Michigan, Prof. & Mrs. Harold Soderquist, and was renamed Marta. She moved to Los Angeles, California, with her family in 1959 and is a graduate of Santa Monica High School.
She appeared in a 1961 episode (“Bang! You’re Dead”) of Alfred Hitchcock Presents alongside Billy Mumy who would later co-star with Kristen in Lost in Space. In addition, she appeared in the films Savage Sam, The Mephisto Waltz, Terminal Island, and Gemini Affair. Her first success in acting was the role of Lorelei in the 1965 movie Beach Blanket Bingo. She would later star in Lost in Space and make numerous guest appearances on television shows such as The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Leave It To Beaver, Wagon Train, Fame, Remington Steele, and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. When her daughter was born in 1969 she began making television commercials and eventually appeared in more than forty. She co-starred again with U.N.C.L.E.’s Robert Vaughn in Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond The Stars. In recent years she has starred in the 1998 television movie Lost in Space Forever and had a cameo role in the 1998 movie Lost in Space. She also appeared in the A&E Biography Jonathan Harris, Never Fear Smith Is Here in 2002. Kristen also provided voice work for the 2009 animated theatrical short The Bolt Who Screwed Christmas which also included voice work from her Lost in Space co-stars Jonathan Harris, Bill Mumy and Angela Cartwright.
We’re very happy to welcome Marta to Monsterama and Spy Con! And we hear she’s bringing a friend along as well.