RIP Robert Culp

Updated on March 25, 2010 By Ken Begg 7 Comments

Robert Culp has passed on. I think of Culp as the TV version of James Coburn, another actor I like quite a bit. Culp had the same sort of effortless cool and clipped manner of speaking. Although Culp starred in a few memorable films, like the swinger flick Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, he will always be primarily remembered for his television work.

Anyone who has never gotten around to watching I Spy really should, it’s one of best spy shows ever, a genre that was as thick as flies in the ’60s. Culp and co-star Bill Cosby (who won several Emmys for the show) had a very real chemistry, and the writing was great. Not to mention that it featured one of the best credit sequences ever:

The highly sophisticated show, which really did break down some big race barriers, was produced by Sheldon Leonard, ironically best known as a character actor who specialized in ‘dese and does’ mugs and thugs. He’s perhaps best remembered as the bartender in It’s a Wonderful Life who tells George Bailey and Clarence “That’s it, out you two pixies go, out the door or through window!”

Culp spent much of ’70s starring in TV movies, including a couple of rather good genre pics, Spectre (written by Gene Roddenbury, and one of several failed ’70s pilots for supernatural detective shows) and A Cold Night’s Death, a 10 Little Indians-esque tale of murder and mystery set at an isolated Arctic base. The film prefigured Carpenter’s The Thing to an extent, and featured a very memorable kicker ending. Actually, I’d really like to see that again. (Now that I look, it appears the entire movie is available on YouTube.)

By the ’80s Culp was working steadily by in a minor key, until he had his second hit show, playing mordant spy Bill Maxwell in the superhero series The Greatest American Hero. (He voices a parody of the show recently on an episode of Robot Chicken.) Past that, he appeared in the normal junk movies (Turk 182!, Silent Night Deadly Night III) and an endless stream of TV appearances. These included recurring roles on The Cosby Show and Everyone Loves Raymond.

Mr. Culp was 79.

Pin It



Related Posts

  • BeckoningChasm

    He was also in serveral episodes of “The Outer Limits,” including the iconic “Demon with a Glass Hand” and one of the most terrifying episodes, “Corpus Earthling.”

  • Rock Baker

    This has been a bad period for TV fans. First Peter Graves, then Fess Parker, now Robert Culp. God bless them all. I’ve always been a big fan of Peter Graves, I figure everybody who saw it as a kid got a huge kick out of Parker’s Davy Crockett, and I only recently discovered Robert Culp. By virtue of a handful of I Spy tapes I picked up at a closing video store, I can support everything that’s been said about the show. It was just great! I also like the way they managed to break racial barriers without shoving such themes down the throat of the viewer. Cosby got all of the attention it seems, but Culp was just as dynamic and never seemed to be playing second fiddle. The two were a real team, and showed a genuine bond that I never really saw on “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”
    Sad times for anyone who loves classic adventure television.

  • Bruce Probst

    Hot damn, I wish “Spectre” would be released on DVD. I only saw it the once, years and years ago, and I’ve been pining to see it again ever since. Never been shown again (here in Australia), so far as I’m aware.

  • Pepper Cat

    Damn. Robert Culp was my favorite bad guy on “Columbo”, too. He was on the show several times, and always stood out.

  • Yes, he was one of a roster of great return villains; Patrick McGoohan and Jack Cassidy also played murderers several times, and like Culp always made a fantastic job of it.

  • PB210

    Something Peter Graves and Robert Culp have in common; they both starred in 60’s espionage series whose film versions many people feel gave them the cold shoulder. (Grave’s part, Jim Phelps, betrays the US in the MI film from 1996).

    Remember that I Spy film from about ten years ago? Sadly, it seems they thought that the original I Spy had played as a comedy due to Bill Cosby. Culp and Cosby did not make cameos.

    Actually, of the films based on 1960’s espionage shows

    I Spy
    Mission Impossible
    The Avengers
    Wild Wild West

    Only Mission Impossible produced sequels. I wonder if the Man From Uncle will get a film?

    http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/22201/t/Secret-Agent-TV-shows—1960-s-adapted–films—Man–Uncle-l.html

  • Matthew H. Davidson

    Robert Culp starred in tv western TRACKDOWN 1957-59, CBS, 70 episodes—tv series had 35-39 episodes per season back then !!
    Directed by Sam PECKINPAH, this CBS series has the distinction of featuring Steve McQueen as Josh Randall , bounty hunter—this character spun off into series WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE which launched McQueen into star orbit of his own.
    ROBERT CULP brought a *presence* to the tv western TRACKDOWN that was *unique*—as TEXAS RANGER HOBIE GILMAN he was the *scariest* man on tv but in that quiet understated way that left *no doubt* that you were *dead* if you made the wrong move. His lean good looks and distinctive voice endowed this series with a gravity unknown in its competitors.

    That it is not currently on dvd is an obscenity—used dvds can be found on e-bay. And now that Robert Culp has died, it’s a sacrilege.

    No fooling: This is *how it’s done*—the fairies and junkies on tv now couldn’t wash Robert Culp’s dirty sox.

    Much of Culp’s best work was done on tv—he was on both ALFRED HITCHCOCK shows [30 & 60 min] and *all* the westerns of the late-’50s-mid 60s. He starred in the very best *ever* made-for-tv movie, the western THE HANGED MAN [’64].

    NOTE: Theme for TRACKDOWN by old pro William LOOSE best western theme—tops HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and BONANZA easily.

    Bill LOOSE was one of those ubiquitous pros with an eye-popping rap-sheet: “The Gumby Show”, beaucoup tv westerns, “Kitten With A Whip” [’64], Russ Meyer flicks, even *NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD* [’69]. Yeah YOU READ THAT RIGHT. How *cool* is that—*none* of his stuff is on cd anywhere. wtf ???

    They paid him the *ultimate* compliment by stripping in some of his tunes on THE REN & STIMPY SHOW—*after* he was dead.

    Cheers !