Don Marshall

Donald James Marshall was born on May 2, 1936, in San Diego, California, to Ernest Overton Marshall and Alma Louise Marshall, née Williams. He grew up alongside his maternal grandmother Leola Williams, two older sisters, Leola Marceline and Ernestine, and a twin brother, Douglas. Marshall graduated from San Diego High School in 1954. Between 1956 and 1957, while still serving in the army, he began studying engineering before a friend, Peter Bren, encouraged him to pursue acting. He subsequently trained at the Bob Gist Dramatic Workshop and took theatre arts courses at Los Angeles City College, where he also competed as a pole vaulter on the track team.

Before establishing himself in film and television, Marshall appeared on Broadway between 1942 and 1945, with credits including the musicals The Firebrand of Florence and You'll See Stars.

Marshall's first professional screen credit came in 1962 with an uncredited appearance in the Columbia Studios feature The Interns, followed by another uncredited role in Shock Treatment in 1964. That same year he played Chris Logan opposite Nichelle Nichols in the CBS Repertoire Workshop episode "Great Gettin' Up Mornin'," a made-for-television production centered on an African-American family preparing their children for their first day at a racially integrated school in the American South. Also in 1964, Nichols played Marshall's fiancée in an episode of Gene Roddenberry's series The Lieutenant, and in 2011 archival footage from that episode appeared in the PBS program Pioneers of Television, in which Marshall was credited as Pvt. Ernest Cameron. In 1965, he appeared in the pilot episode "Braddock" for the series Premiere, and in 1966 he took on the recurring role of Luke in Daktari. He later portrayed Lieutenant Boma in the Star Trek episode "The Galileo Seven" in 1967, and made appearances in Tarzan, Dragnet 1967, and Ironside. In 1968, he played Ted Neumann, the recurring love interest of Julia Baker, across four episodes of the television series Julia.

His appearance in the Premiere pilot "Braddock" led to a meeting with producer Irwin Allen, which resulted in Marshall being cast as Dan Erickson in Land of the Giants, the role for which he became best known. The series featured Marshall performing alongside Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Kurt Kasznar, Stefan Arngrim, Deanna Lund, and Heather Young. His prominence in the science-fiction series was historically significant; he was among only a small number of African-American actors — alongside Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek, Greg Morris in Mission: Impossible, and Bill Cosby in I Spy — to hold such a visible leading role in a 1960s science-fiction production. The physical demands of the series were considerable, as cast members performed many of their own stunts. Marshall credited his background in football, track, and pole vaulting with enabling him to meet those demands. During the episode "Ghost Town," he dislocated his shoulder while diving over a fire and was required to shoot additional scenes the following day with his arm in a sling. The episode "Giants and All That Jazz," which featured former world champion boxer Sugar Ray Robinson as Biff Bowers and Mike Mazurki as Loach, involved Marshall teaching the character Biff Bowers to play the trumpet. Marshall described the episode as a personal favorite. He also noted that the atmosphere on set was more relaxed when Allen was absent. In later years, Marshall wrote a script for a proposed sequel to the series titled Escape from a Giant Land, which he hoped would be produced as a feature film incorporating as many original cast members as possible.

In 1971, Marshall appeared in the made-for-television war film The Reluctant Heroes, directed by Robert Day and set during the Korean War. He played Pvt. Carver LeMoyne, a character subjected to sustained racial abuse from Cpl. Leroy Sprague, portrayed by Warren Oates. The film also starred Ken Berry, Jim Hutton, Ralph Meeker, Cameron Mitchell, and Trini Lopez. The following year he was cast as Dr. Fred Williams in the science-fiction horror film The Thing with Two Heads, starring Ray Milland and Rosey Grier. In 1974 he appeared in Uptown Saturday Night as Slim's Henchman, and in 1976 he played Captain Colter in an episode of The Bionic Woman. Between 1978 and 1980, he appeared in three episodes of The Incredible Hulk, and in 1979 he took a role in a two-part episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as Julio.

During the 1980s, Marshall appeared in episodes of Little House on the Prairie as Caleb Ledoux, in Finder of Lost Loves as Doctor Jim Blair, and in Capitol as Senator Ed Lawrence. He stated that he was proud of his work on Little House on the Prairie. In 1992, he played a concierge in the made-for-television film Highway Heartbreaker, directed by Paul Schneider. After retiring from acting, Marshall founded DJM Productions, Inc., a company that produced television commercials and documentary films. He received an award for outstanding achievement as a Black Achiever in the United States and provided consultation on matters related to his professional work and racial issues. He had one daughter and one son. Marshall died on October 30, 2016, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 80.