Robert Culp

Robert Culp
Born	Robert Martin Culp
Occupation	actor
Spouse(s)	Candace Faulkner (1981-2007) 1 Child Sheila Sullivan (1971-1981) France Nuyen (1967-1970) Elayne Carroll (1951-?) (divorced) Nancy Ashe (1958-1966) 4 Children

Robert Martin Culp (born August 16 1930) is an American actor, perhaps best known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965-1968), the espionage TV series, where he and co-star Bill Cosby played a pair of secret agents (Cosby played the role of Alexander Scott.)

Biography

Early life

Culp was born in Oakland, California. In 1930, he graduated from Berkeley High School. He also graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He has been married five times and has three sons and two daughters. From 1967-1970, he was married to Eurasian actress France Nuyen, whom he met when she guest-starred on I Spy in 1966. She appeared in four episodes of the series, two of them written by Culp himself. During the series run, Culp wrote scripts for seven episodes, one of which he also directed.

Television performances

Culp came to national attention with his first role on film as the lead star in the 1957 Western television series Trackdown in which he played Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. Trackdown was a spin-off of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, also on CBS. There was also a CBS spin-off of Trackdown: Wanted: Dead or Alive, with Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall.

After Trackdown ended in 1959, he continued to work in television and guest starred on numerous television programs in the early 1960s, including a lead role of "Captain Shark" in the fourth episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Among his more memorable performances were in three episodes of the science fiction anthology series The Outer Limits (1963-1965), including the classic "Demon with a Glass Hand", written by Harlan Ellison. Culp then played Kelly Robinson for three years on the show I_Spy, which he co-starred with Bill Cosby.

Culp played the murderer in three Columbo television movies, portraying different characters. In 1971, he, Peter Falk, Robert Wagner and Darren McGavin all stepped in to take turns with Anthony Franciosa's rotation of The Name of the Game after Franciosa was fired, rotating the lead of the lavish 90-minute show about the mag business with Gene Barry and Robert Stack. His next starring stint on television was as FBI agent Bill Maxwell in The Greatest American Hero (1981). In 1987 he again teamed up with Bill Cosby, this time on The Cosby Show, playing Cosby's character Cliff Huxtible's old friend Scott Kelly; the name is a combination of the I Spy character's names.

When Larry Hagman entered into contract negotiations over his character of J.R. Ewing in Dallas, Culp was ready to step into the role with an explanation that his face had been rebuilt following an accident. One of his most recent recurring roles was a part on Everybody Loves Raymond as Warren Whelan, Ray's father-in-law.

He was also considered for the part of Commander John Koenig in Space: 1999, but the producers instead chose Martin Landau, after Culp expressed an interest in writing and directing many of the episodes himself.

He appeared on an episode of The Girls Next Door.

Theatrical performances

In addition to television, Culp has also worked as an actor in theatrical films, beginning with PT 109 in 1963, and then as Wild Bill Hickok in The Raiders that same year. He went on to star in the film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1969; probably the height of his movie career. One of his other most memorable film roles was as Thomas Luther Price in Hannie Caulder (1971). Other notable films include Hickey & Boggs in 1972 (which reunited him with Cosby for the first time after I Spy), and Turk 182 (1985). Culp also played the U.S. President in Alan J. Pakula's 1994 movie The Pelican Brief. In all, Culp has made hundreds of appearances in TV shows and movies between 1957 and 2007.

Other work

Culp lent his voice to the digital character Doctor Breen, the prime antagonist in the 2004 computer game Half-Life 2. This was not his first video game role, however: he also appeared in the 1993 game Voyeur.

On November 9, 2007 on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel, host Bill O'Reilly interviewed Culp about Culp's long acting career and awarded Culp with the distinction "TV Icon of the Week."

External links

• Robert Culp at AllMovie