Don Matheson Dead at 84

Don Matheson played Cameron
Faulker on General Hospital.

Don Matheson, who played roles in a number of soap operas, has died, his daughter told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 84.

Matheson, who worked as a Detroit narcotics cop before becoming an actor, died June 29 in his sleep in the Woodland Hills home of his daughter, actress and musician Michele Matheson, and her family. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer 10 months ago.

Matheson was perhaps best known for playing short-tempered businessman Mark Wilson on ABC sci-fi series Land of the Giants, which aired for two seasons from September 1968 until March 1970. Set in the year 1983, the series revolved around the crew and passengers of the spaceship Spindrift, which on the way to London crashed on a planet whose humanoid inhabitants were hostile and unbelievably huge. Mark was one of the stranded "little people" in the story.

Matheson wed another star on the show, Deanna Lund, in 1970 shortly after Land of the Giants was canceled, but their marriage ended in divorce. He never remarried, and their daughter said they remained the best of friends.