From the LA Times.
Robert Culp dies at 79; actor starred in 'I Spy' TV series
'He was the big brother that all of us wish for,' said his co-star on the show, Bill Cosby. The Emmy-nominated Culp also won plaudits for his role in the 1969 movie 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
By Dennis McLellan
March 24, 2010
Robert Culp, the veteran actor best known for starring with Bill Cosby in the classic 1960s espionage-adventure series "I Spy" and for playing Bob in the 1969 movie "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," died Wednesday morning. He was 79.
Culp fell and hit his head while taking a walk outside his Hollywood Hills home. He was found by a jogger who called 911 and was pronounced dead at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Lt. Bob Binder of the Los Angeles Police Department. An autopsy is pending.
...
Before he was Kelly Robinson -- a role for which he will be rightly be remembered -- Culp was "Trent":
Immortal, amnesiac savior of the human race fighting Kyben time travelers in Harlan Ellison's "Demon with a Glass Hand".
After I Spy, he was a "Columbo" villain 2-3 times.
Later, Maxwell, a Right-of-Reagan good guy paired with a hippie with a magic suit who saved the world once a week.
He was athletic, and could play a convincing tough guy, but Robert Culp was a ball to watch in almost anything he did because he had that Bogart ability to gracefully play tough and funny and very smart all at once.
RIP Mr. Culp.
3 comments:
Damn, I had SUCH a crush on him. So cool. You know, when I Spy had guns they just didn't seem so threatening. Very sad for his family and friends. RIP.
Damn, this has been a bad couple of weeks for TV heroes of my youth. Fess Parker, Peter Graves and now Robert Culp.
Demon with a Glass Hand is a fine piece of work, but out of the three "Outer Limits" episodes in which he played the lead -- more than any other actor, btw -- it's only my second-favorite. It was Corpus Earthling that imo gave him a chance to really show his chops as an actor (though I freely admit DwtGH is in many ways the better story).
There's also a superbly creepy little made-for-TV movie he did back in the 70s, called A Cold Night's Death which is well worth a look, if you get the chance. (I believe it's available now on youtube.)
Bon voyage, Bob.
Post a Comment