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American actor (1930–2010)

Robert Martin Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010) was an American actor and screenwriter widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965–1968), the espionage television series in which co star Bill Cosby and he played secret agents. Before this, he starred in the CBS/Four Star Western series Trackdown as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman in 71 episodes from 1957 to 1959. The 1980s brought him back to television as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero. Later, he had a recurring role as Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond, and was a voice actor for various computer games, including Half Life 2. Culp gave hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years.

Culp was born on August 16, 1930, in either Oakland, California, or Berkeley, California. He was the only child of Crozier Cordell Culp, an attorney, and his wife, Bethel Martin Culp (née Collins). He graduated from Berkeley High School, where he was a pole vaulter and took second place at the 1947 CIF California State Meet. Culp attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and later Washington University in St. Louis, San Francisco State, and the University of Washington School of Drama, but never completed an academic degree. He also received acting training at HB Studio in New York City.

Culp came to national attention early in his career as the star of the 1957–1959 CBS Western television series Trackdown, in which he played Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman, based in the town of Porter, Texas. It was one of Culp's many appearances in TV Westerns. The pilot for Trackdown was "Badge of Honor", a 1956 episode of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, in which Culp starred as Gilman. In 1960, he appeared in two more episodes of Zane Grey Theatre, playing different roles in "Morning Incident" and "Calico Bait". After Trackdown ended in 1959 after two seasons, Culp continued to work in television, including a guest starring role as Stewart Douglas in the 1960 episode "So Dim the Light" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson. In the summer of 1960, he guest starred on David McLean's NBC Western series Tate. He played Clay Horne in the series finale, "Cave In", of the CBS Western Johnny Ringo, starring Don Durant. In 1961, Culp played the part of Craig Kern, a morphine addicted soldier, in the episode "Incident on Top of the World" in the CBS series Rawhide. About this time, Culp was cast on the NBC anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show and in the NBC Civil War drama, The Americans. Culp was cast as Captain Shark in a first season episode of NBC's The Man from U. N. C. L. E. (1964). Some of his more memorable performances were in three episodes of the science fiction anthology series on The Outer Limits (1963–1965), including the classic "Demon with a Glass Hand", written by Harlan Ellison. In the 1961 season, he guest starred on the NBC's Western Bonanza. In the 1961–1962 season, he guest starred on ABC's crime drama Target: The Corruptors! and that network's The Rifleman. In the 1962–1963 season, he guest starred in NBC's modern Western series Empire starring Richard Egan. In 1964, Culp played Charlie Orwell, an alcoholic veterinarian, in an episode of The Virginian (NBC 1962–1971) titled "The Stallion". That same year, he appeared in yet another Western, Gunsmoke. In the series' episode "Hung High", he portrays an outlaw named Joe Costa, who attempts to frame Matt Dillon for lynching a prisoner who had killed the marshal's friend. In 1965, he was cast as Frank Melo in "The Tender Twigs" of James Franciscus's NBC education drama series, Mr. Novak. Culp then played perhaps his most memorable character, American secret agent Kelly Robinson, who operated undercover as a touring tennis professional, for three years on the hit NBC series I Spy (1965–1968), with co star Bill Cosby. Culp wrote the scripts for seven episodes, one of which he also directed and an episode earned him an Emmy nomination for writing. For all three years of the series, he was also nominated for an acting Emmy (Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series category), but lost each time to Cosby. In 1968, Culp also made an uncredited cameo appearance as an inebriated Turkish waiter on Get Smart, the spy spoof comedy series, in an I Spy parody episode titled "Die Spy". In this, secret agent Maxwell Smart played by Don Adams in effect assumes Culp's Kelly Robinson character, as he pretends to be an international table tennis champion. The episode faithfully recreates the I Spy theme music, montage graphics, and back and forth banter between Robinson and Scott, with actor/comedian Stu Gilliam imitating Cosby. In 1971, Culp, Peter Falk, Robert Wagner, and Darren McGavin each stepped in to take turns with Anthony Franciosa's rotation of NBC's series The Name of the Game after Franciosa was fired, alternating a lead role of the lavish, 90 minute show about the magazine business with Gene Barry and Robert Stack. Also in 1971, he portrayed an unemployed actor, the husband of ambitious Angie Dickinson, in the TV movie See the Man Run. Culp played the murderer in three Columbo episodes ("Death Lends a Hand" in 1971, "The Most Crucial Game" in 1972, "Double Exposure" in 1973) and also appeared in the 1990 episode "Columbo Goes to College" as the father of one of two young murderers. He also played the murderer in the pilot episode of Mrs. Columbo starring Kate Mulgrew in the title role. In 1973, Culp almost took the male lead in the sci fi television series Space: 1999. During negotiations with creator and executive producer Gerry Anderson, Culp expressed himself to be not only an asset as an actor, but also as a director and producer for the proposed series. The part instead went to Martin Landau. Culp co starred in The Greatest American Hero as tough veteran FBI Special Agent Bill Maxwell, who teams up with a high school teacher who receives superpowers from extraterrestrials. He wrote and directed the second season finale episode "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell", with free rein to do the episode as he saw fit. The show lasted three years from 1981 to 1983. In addition to appearing in four episodes of I Spy, two of them written by Culp, in 1969 Nuyen also co hosted the second episode of the TV comedy Turn On with him, but the program was never shown, as the series was cancelled after its first airing. Culp had three sons and a daughter with his second wife, and a daughter with his fifth wife. Culp's grandson, Elmo Kennedy O'Connor, is a rapper and performs under the alias Bones.

On March 24, 2010, Culp died at age 79 after a fall while walking near Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles. He was buried at Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito. A memorial service was held at Grauman's Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles on April 10, 2010. At the time of his death, Culp had just completed performing a supporting role as Blakesley in the film The Assignment. He was also working on several screenplays, including an adaptation of the story of Terry and the Pirates that had already been accepted for filming and was scheduled to start production in Hong Kong in 2012, with Culp directing. Terry and the Pirates had been Culp's favorite comic strip as a boy, and it was his longtime wish to make a film based on it.