Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79

Subject: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Genie
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 06:10 PM

Cosby's 'I Spy' costar, Robert Culp, dead at age 79

Apparently, he fell and died of a concussion.   


I loved this show.   So sorry to see him gone so soon.

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 06:41 PM

I loved Culp. A good actor who played well in slightly off-center characters, I think his role in a Raquel Welch vehicle named "Hannie Caulder" was typical of his parts. A scientific gunfighter who wears glasses and passes out philosophy and fast draw/killing instruction in equal measure. The three villains in that one are equally fine with Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Strother Martin, as three vicious and idiot brothers.

Robert Culp gave us some fine TV roles with his last as the fatther in law on "Everybody Loves Raymond."

He was also a good friend of Hugh Hefner and that couldn't have been all bad!


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 06:54 PM

"We master spies have our sources. In this case, it happens to be the front page of the New York Times."

I enjoyed everything I've ever seen him in. Sorry to lose him.

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 06:59 PM

Oh, damn!!

I went to school with Robert Culp. He was a drama student at the University of Washington. I didn't know him all that well, but I remember seeing him in a couple of student productions. One of "Sherlock Holmes" at the U. of W.'s Showboat Theater. He played Holmes (made a good one, too—deerstalker cap, greatcoat, the whole bit) and a fellow named Bart Tollefson played Watson.

Then, it the late 1950s, I flipped on the TV and there was a new Western. "Trackdown." And there was Robert Culp.

Hey, fantastic! I thought. Looks like he's made it!

Jeez! All my contemporaries are falling off the twig. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: kendall
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 07:43 PM

Hot Damn! he was only 4 years older than I!

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Genie
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 07:54 PM

Well, Culp didn't die of old age. He fell and hit his head and died from the injury.   People die from head injuries at all ages.   DK if his age had anything to do with why he fell, but if you hit your head on concrete, it's not good for your health.

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Genie
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 08:01 PM

ETA: So far it's unclear whether the fall caused Culp's death. The coroner is investigating.
He did fall while on a walk, but it's possible he fell after having a heart attack. The news reports are inconsistent and unclear.

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 09:48 PM

My sister went to college with his daughter who apparently had anorexia before it was recognized as a disease - they used to call her Bones.

RIP whatever killed him.

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 02:59 AM

Not that old and another of the good ones. I always enjoyed him, too. I didn't get to see I, Spy, as we only had CBS available at the time. I've seen reruns, though, and always loved it.Neat info on it at WIKI.

I hope he was happy in life and rests in peace.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:12 AM

I didn't like Robert Culp! Well, actually, I never met the chap, but - apart from playing a good guy in I Spy - I always think of him playing unsavory, unattractive characters. And, of course, he played those roles beautifully.

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 02:49 PM

Tunesmith, that reminds me: Years ago, when we were quite young, my brother and I agreed that we didn't like Eddie Albert- based on the character he played in 'Battle Cry'. We decided no decent person could present such an unsavory character so believably without being unsavory himself. lol

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: kendall
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 07:20 PM

I felt the same way about Trevor Howard. Had I been Christian I might well have "run him through".

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Genie
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 01:11 AM

Ah, but the usually loveable Henry Fonda did a superb job of playing a heinous cad (who killed a child in cold blood) in a movie western. Really good actors can convincingly play characters who are very different from themselves.

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 03:07 AM

And the great Gregory Peck played Doctor Joseph Mengele in "The Boys From Brazil." He was head of a project trying to raise clones of Hitler and control their early lives so one might grow up to be der Fuhrer reborn.

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 04:27 AM

Robert Culp played hero types pretty well. But the really fun parts to play are the "heavies," and I think he really enjoyed doing those rules.

Max Von Sydow, the great Swedish actor, is said to have really enjoyed playing Ming the Merciless in the movie version of "Flash Gordon." It gave him a chance to snarl and roar for a change.

If you didn't like Robert Culp after seeing him play a villain, that just shows how good a job he did in the part.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 04:35 AM

That should read "roles" rather than "rules." I'm trying out the latest version of a voice recognition program (Just dictate, and the words appear on the screen. But sometimes it mishears. Still gotta proof read).

Don Firth he

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 08:51 AM

Ebbie: I think you were thinking of "Attack" a great war movie starring Jack Palance - and the cowardly Eddie Albert!

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 06:35 PM

Nope, Tunesmith. In Battle Cry, Albert played an officer. (Noq I have to go check.)

Subject: RE: Obit: Actor Robert Culp, age 79
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 06:43 PM

"The film Attack! (1956) provided Albert with a dark role as a cowardly, psychotic Army captain whose behavior threatens the safety of his company." wikipedia

It appears that Tunesmith is correct. I would have said that I've seen very few war movies but apparently I used to have different views. :)

Battle Cry is the first movie I ever saw, other than a tearjerker in third grade, before my parents were warned.