The Only Major Actors Still Alive From Space: 1999

The 1970s treated audiences to some of the best sci-fi on TV and film, from “Star Wars” to “Star Trek” and “Battlestar Galactica.” But one of the most underrated sci-fi cult classics of the decade was “Space: 1999,” a British TV series from the mind of Gerry Anderson, creator of puppet-mation shows like “Fireball XL5” and “The Thunderbirds.”

The series was born out of “UFO,” which had only lasted a single season in 1971. Instead of retooling the failed series to improve its ratings, the network decided to start from scratch and launched “Space: 1999” in 1975. Real-life married couple Martin Landau and Barbara Bain lead a cast of space adventurers who operate out of Moonbase Alpha, their headquarters on the lunar surface. In the premiere episode, a catastrophic nuclear detonation sends the moon, and with it, Moonbase Alpha, careening into deep space.

Over the years, much of the main cast of “Space: 1999” has, sadly, passed away. Series star Martin Landau departed this Earth in 2017 after a long career in Hollywood, which saw him appear on shows like “Mission: Impossible” as well as classic films like “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and, of course, his Oscar-winning performance in “Ed Wood.” And nearly all of Landau’s “Space: 1999” co-stars have joined him in the next life, before or since, with Clifton Jones passing away most recently in June of 2025. But as fans continue to celebrate the series, there are still a few cast members who are still with us.

“Space: 1999” didn’t last long on TV, but it’s one of those ’70s TV flops that are still worth watching — and star Barbara Bain, who starred as Moonbase Alpha’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Helena Russell, is a big reason why. Back in 1975, Bain and her husband, Martin Landau, had been married for nearly a decade and were already big names on TV after having headlined a major US network hit, “Mission: Impossible.” Unfortunately, following the cancelation of “Space: 1999” after two seasons, Bain’s days as a series lead were essentially over. But don’t think for a moment that was the end of her career.

In the 1980s, Bain became a semi-frequent television guest star, showing up on various shows like “Scarecrow and Mrs. King,” “The New Mike Hammer,” and alongside Bruce Willis in “Moonlighting.” In the ’90s, she made a handful of additional appearances, including roles in episodes of “Murder, She Wrote,” “Walker, Texas Ranger,” and “My So-Called Life,” but she largely stayed away from bigger parts or even recurring roles.

In 2016, Bain received her very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an acknowledgment of her impressive career, which spans parts of eight decades. If you are wondering if she’s still acting, well, in 2024, Bain could be seen in an episode of “Before,” on Apple TV+. She will turn 94 in September 2025.

Pilot Alan Carter was played by Nick Tate, an Australian character actor who, by the mid-1970s, was mostly working in the Land Down Under. Though his career began in the 1950s, Tate’s role as Carter in “Space: 1999” was the first time he was part of a show’s main cast, bringing him into the homes of British audiences every week for two seasons. When the show ended in 1977, he returned to starring in Aussie originals but also found himself getting more work in the UK.

In the 1990s, Tate finally came stateside when he returned to the world of sci-fi for a Season 4 episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” titled “Final Mission,” where he played a gruff space captain who finds himself marooned on a desert planet with Captain Picard and Wesley Crusher. Appearances on shows like “Night Court,” “Matlock,” and “Murder, She Wrote” followed, and, suddenly, Tate found himself with a burgeoning Hollywood career. He returned to the “Star Trek” franchise in 1998, playing Liam Bilby, a small-time crook with a heart of gold, in an episode of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” He also made memorable appearances in “The X-Files,” “Lost,” and “Farscape.”

More recently, Tate has had roles in episodes of “Pretty Little Liars” and “The Blacklist.” In 2019, he joined the voice cast of the Australian animated series “Strange Chores,” for which he has voiced Helsing for 78 episodes. He is 83.

When “Space: 1999” was in development, series co-creator Sylvia Anderson wanted an all-British cast, but American networks forced the show to cast American actors — ultimately, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain — as the show’s leads. She got her wish in part, though, with the casting of Anton Phillips, a Jamaican-British actor whose career begins and ends in the United Kingdom. Phillips, who co-starred as Dr. Bob Mathias — assistant to Bain’s Dr. Helena Russell — was a young up-and-comer at the time, with “Space: 1999” being just his third on-screen role after a pair of minor TV guest appearances.

After shooting 23 episodes of “Space: 1999,” Phillips departed the series of his own accord, as he was reportedly unhappy with his role. Since then, he’s made sporadic appearances on television but has spent the majority of his career advocating for Black talent on stage and screen. In the early 1980s, Phillips founded the Black Theatre Forum, which was designed to provide an outlet for Black actors to gather and talk about the issues facing their community.

Later that decade, Phillips produced a stage adaptation of “The Amen Corner” by James Baldwin. In doing so, he became the first Black person to produce and direct a play to make its way to London’s prestigious West End. In the years since, Phillips has continued to fight for his community, and in 2015, he was given the Edric Connor Trailblazer Award at the Screen Nation Film and Television Awards. In October 2025, he will turn 82.

Unlike its predecessor, “UFO,” “Space: 1999” got a second season, which included a retooled cast that added the likes of Catherine Schell in the role of an alien named Maya. A shapeshifter, Maya is a survivor of the planet Psychon, saved from its destruction by the crew of Moonbase Alpha. Prior to joining the series, Schell was perhaps best known for her role as Bond girl Nancy (credited as Catherina Von Schell) in the lone George Lazenby-led 007 film, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”

The year before joining “Space: 1999,” Schell was seen in the Peter Sellers sequel, “Return of the Pink Panther,” and two years later starred opposite Richard Harris in the 1977 adaptation of “Gulliver’s Travels.” A favorite of sci-fi fans, Schell also had a key part in the iconic “Doctor Who” serial “City of Death” in 1979, one of Tom Baker’s best stories. In the mid-1990s, Schell retired from the stage and relocated to the small town of Bonneval in France, where she purchased and operated a small inn until her husband’s passing in 2006.

Since her move to France, Schell has come out of retirement a few times. She appeared in a 2020 BBC adaptation of “Dracula” from “Sherlock” creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, while her most recent performance came in the 2022 Rob Zombie-directed big screen remake of “The Munsters.”

Though she went uncredited in the series, actress Sarah Bullen has to be included on a list of “Space: 1999” stars because of her appearance in more than 20 episodes as the mostly silent member of the Moonbase Alpha crew, Kate Bullen. She counts her role in “Space: 1999” as her very first on-screen part, but while she had a decent career in the immediate aftermath, her filmography isn’t very long.

First and foremost, Bullen was an equestrian, a member of a prominent English family who represented the United Kingdom at the Olympics time and time again. In fact, when she was cast in “Space: 1999,” Bullen says it was unexpected given her background as a horse rider. “I thought there would be opportunities in historical films,” she said in a piece of promotional press material for the series. “You can imagine my surprise when my first role turned out to be a girl in space. You can’t ride a horse on the moon!”

Following her role as a crewmember on “Space: 1999,” Bullen had recurring roles in British dramas like “The XYY Man,” “House of Caradus,” and the Jean Le Carré adaptation, “A Perfect Spy.” She also leveraged her equestrian talents for a role in “International Velvet,” the sequel to the Elizabeth Taylor film “National Velvet,” starring Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Plummer, and Tatum O’Neil. Her final acting role came in 1992, in the TV miniseries “The Life and Times of Harry Pratt.”