Scott Andrew

Posted January 14, 2015.

Robert Kinoshita, Robot Designer for 'Forbidden Planet' and 'Lost in Space,' Dies at 100

Bummer. He designed both Robby the Robot and the robot from Lost In Space (simply known as "Robot"), and was the lead designer for that show, creating the spacecraft sets. A few years ago my wife and I went to the EMP Science Fiction Museum to check out an exhibit that featured animatronic replicas of both robots arguing with each other. It was pretty great.

Something I learned: due to the similar urgent tone and cadence, I used to think that a single voice actor provided the voices for both robot characters, but I was wrong. Robby was voiced by Marvin Miller, while Robot's voice was by Dick Tufeld, who also did Robot's voice for the 1998 movie version of Lost In Space and a few episodes of The Simpsons.

I couldn't find any video of the EMP exhibit, so instead enjoy these classic SyFy Channel commercials featuring both robots: