For all of you newcomers, fasten your safety belts and prepare for a  journey through cyberspace that you cannot enjoy anywhere else. This  robot and his inner-workings, Bob May, says to you all, "Welcome,  welcome!" And remember, your B9  memories may only be beginning but they are joining a lot of old and good ones. Have fun!

Your robot, 
Bob May

Visit Bob at his web site:www.robot-b9.com    

The following is an interview of Bob May conducted by ICONs back in 1998.

B-9 Robot Bob May Interview.  An Interview with Robot Actor Bob May.

One of the most lively, humorous and colorful original cast members of Lost In Space was ironically never revealed on screen.

Bob May: The man inside the Robot during all three seasons of the classic television series. With a vaudevillian family lineage, a comedian's timing, and an athlete's strength and endurance, May brought the Robot to life. Just watch any episode and observe the Robot's carefully executed moves and gestures. More than a pantomime artist or skilled puppeteer. Bob instilled the Robot with a vibrant personality. Giving him life. The Vault spoke to Bob during one of his continuos visits to Icons inspecting the Lost In Space Icons B-9 Robot assembly line.

ICONS: How did you get the part of the Robot?

BOB MAY: I was visiting Fox for a casting call on the Sixties film Stage Coach. While I was on the set, a call came down from one of the main casting heads. He asked me if I had signed my contract and I said no. He said good, because Irwin Allen would like to see you. So I turned around to a good friend of mine, Red Buttons, who was also working on Stage Coach, and I said, Red, what do I do? He said I've worked for Irwin Allen for many years. Get out of here, I never want to see you again. Sign with him no matter what. I said okay. So I went over there and Irwin came to the door and he said, Well Bob haven't you worked for me before? And I said yes I did a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode and Irwin said I thought so. Then he began to tell me, We aregoing to do this show called Lost in Space. There is a robot part. I don't know what we're going to do with the Robot; I don't know what the Robot can do. If you want the part we would love to have you. There's only one catch. You have to fit into the Robot suit because it's almost alldone and we have sunk a lot of money into it. So I said fine. Then he sent me down to the prop shop and that's when I met Robert Kinoshita for the first time. So I got into the Robot, fooled around with it a little. Then Irwin showed up and asked Kinoshita, How's Bob doing? Kinoshita said, He's fine. He'll work out just fine! So I get out of the Robot and Irwin says, Bob, you've got the job. Now as I've said before I don't know what we're going to do with it, but I want you to do one big favor for me. Make something out of our robot. At that point he gave me the greatest compliment any producer can give an actor. And that is, he allowed me to develop the character as I saw it. In turn, that's what I did. The writers caught on to what I was doing. As a result they started adding business into the scripts accordingly.

ICONS: What would you say are some of the classic Robot moves?

BOB: I'll tell you only what I was able to tell everyone else. Firstly I could never tell Irwin all simply because I was worried about my job. Let's be honest I tell him all and then He'll get someone else.

ICONS: Perhaps we should rephrase that. In the show a startled expression would often mean a bubble movement up and down.

BOB: At times it could mean a double take as well. It could also be a combination of both. You have to understand the essence of acting is first and foremost reacting.

ICONS: Have you ever thought of your work inside the suit as a form of mime?

BOB: It's not a mime. I never thought of it that way. It may be in retrospect but I never even thought of it that way because if you couldhave taken an x-ray of the Robot you would have seen me going crazyinside. What I was trying to do and I think to a greater degree I accomplished, it was to take the actor inside and turn the costume intothat actor. And in doing so you have to be reacting frenetically inside to make all of the varied emotions come to life. With that, the costume you are wearing truly becomes that character. My plan back then was to give it that ultimate personality so that the other actors would not look at it as, well here's the costume or worse still here's the prop. Then characterization for the Robot was all important to my fellow performers and how they reacted against it. Simply because if they couldn't buy it, how could an audience be expected to follow suit.

ICONS: Okay Bob we have just stepped out of a time machine and it's 1965. What is your day like on the set?

BOB: It's still dark outside. It's about quarter to six in the morning. Funny enough there were lot of days where I was following an equally bleary-eyed Jonathan Harris on the freeway. I report to my own dressing room at the set.

ICONS: What did you get into as an undersuit?

BOB: I called it kiddingly an Irwin Allen reject. That thing must have been (laughs) geez somebody was cleaning floors with it or something. But it was a blue denim type shirt and pants and these sneakers that I think must have gone back to the days when sneakers werefirst invented.

ICONS: What was your favorite episode of the show?

BOB: That would have to be the last a episode "Junkyard in Space", When the Robot sacrifices himself to save the family by giving himself to the alien junkman for scrap in exchange for their freedom. There was a really touching scene in that episode . I'm heading for the blast furnace to be melted down. Billy Mumy is standing above me as I go down the conveyor belt. At that point, in what has to be one of the most touching good-byes I found myself overcome and began to cry. I could even see that Billy had been caught up in the moment. And the funny thing is, at the end of the scene, the heart of the Robot and his love for the family stopped him from being melted down because even the blast furnace could not destroy a pure heart. All in all, that was one of the Robot's finest hours. Love conquered all.

ICONS: Can you remember any funny moments from the show?

BOB: Sure, Where do I start? Billy Mumy and Mark Goddard both had a wicked sense of humor. They got me a couple of times. One lunchtime they left me locked inside the suit while they ate. Funny enough, I decided to make the best of it by lighting up a cigarette, not a habit I recommend to anybody. Anyhow I'm inside the suit puffing away and Irwin Allen walks on stage sees the Robot smoking and thinks at that point the suits on fire. He runs to get an extinguisher at which point I scream "Irwin, Irwin it's okay. I'm in here smoking." Well from that point onwards they used to issue me cigars whenever the Robot had to do a smoke effect. In fact the effects boys even installed an ash tray inside the suit for me.

ICONS: That was a time when an effect almost went bad?

BOB: No not really. Although we did have a few problems at first with the suit. In the pilot, when I had to move my legs before they where bolted together, I got pretty cut up by all the metal edges. Irwin took one look at me and said to the effects guys, We've got to stop that from happening again. At that point the legs were bolted together and I was pulled by a steel cable that was on a pulley that was operated by hand by two guys.

ICONS: So was the cable the main mode of transport for the Robot?

BOB: No. We came up with a new lower portion to the suit which I called the bermudas, mainly because they looked like bermuda shorts and it attached to me by a parachute harness. Oh by the way we did have one incident with the cable one day. I was being pulled up the ramp into the Jupiter 2 set. At that point I was lucky enough to be able to give most directors advice as to what the Robot could and couldn't do. This time around, I told our director that it would be best to use the bermudas for going up the ramp with all of the family at the same time. But instead he wanted to use the cable. Well, I tell you one thing lead to another and somebody stepped on that cable and at that point the Robot is doing almost a 360 up in the air. The next thing I know, I'm coming to, and June Lockhart is looking down on me and asking if I'm alright. Well I was fine. My major concern was how's the Robot suit? Because I sure didn't want to be out of a job if the suit was out of commission. Needless to say, the suit was fine and I worked the rest of that day.

ICONS: What powered the Robot?

BOB: Well, initially, we had a real long cable coming out the back of the suit. In fact there was one day Irwin Allen was up on a camera crane and he saw me in the suit running across the stage. He yelled down what's up with Bob? Well at that point I had practically 2,000 volts zapping in my backside! Believe me you'd run too! Not long after that they came up with a system of mounting two motorcycle batteries inside the suit. One to run the neon and the other to run my head and chest lights. Those batteries had to be recharged outside the suit at least 3 or 4 times a day. Sometimes the neon battery would last only a half day.

ICONS: What's next for you?

BOB: Well after 57 years in the business, I feel lucky to say I'm getting paid to do something that I love. And more importantly, for many of my roles, I've made lifelong friends and fans. Both of which continue to be a great joy to myself and my wife Judy. So the next time you hear that Bob May, your favorite Robot is coming to a convention near you, feel free to come on up and share some memories with your bubble-headed booby.

Copyright 1998 Space Productions.   All rights reserved.