Marta Kristen

Marta Kristen (born February 26, 1944) is a Norwegian-born American actress. Kristen is best known for her role as Judy Robinson, the oldest child of Professor John Robinson and his wife, Maureen, in the television series Lost in Space (1965–1968). Her character was a young adult, around 20 years of age. Early life 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. (Her Finnish mother gave up little Birgit to save her the pain of growing up knowing her real parents were part of the Nazi regime or Third Reich.) Birgit spent her first years in an orphanage in Norway, and was then adopted in 1949 by a couple from Detroit, Michigan, Harold Oliver Soderquist and his wife, Bertha, who renamed her Martha Annalise Soderquist. Her adoptive father was a professor of education at Wayne University, also in Detroit. Kristen has one brother, whom her parents also adopted. In 1959, Kristen moved to the Los Angeles area while her father was on sabbatical leave from his professorship. She remained there with a guardian, and graduated from Santa Monica High School.