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Actor Robert Culp dies aged 79: Star of 'I Spy' collapsed outside home after suspected heart attack
Last updated at 7:30 AM on 25th March 2010
Actor Robert Culphas has died after collapsing outside his Hollywood home yesterday.
The star, who teamed with Bill Cosby in the racially groundbreaking TV series I Spy and appeared as Bob in the critically acclaimed sex comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, was taken to hospital but pronounced dead. He was 79.
His manager, Hillard Elkins, said the actor had been on a walk when he fell.
The actor's son was told he died of a heart attack, Mr Elkins said, though police were unsure if the fall was medically related.
Los Angeles police Lt. Robert Binder said no foul play was suspected. Mr Binder said a jogger found Culp, who apparently fell and struck his head.
Culp had been working on writing screenplays, Mr Elkins said.
I Spy, which aired from 1965 to 1968, was a television milestone in more ways than one. Its combination of humour and adventure broke new ground, and it was the first integrated television show to feature a black actor in a starring role.
Culp played Kelly Robinson, a spy whose cover was that of an ace tennis player. In real life, Culp actually was a top-notch tennis player who showed his skills in numerous celebrity tournaments.
Cosby was fellow spy Alexander Scott, whose cover was that of Culp's trainer. The pair travelled the world in the service of the U.S. government.
The series greatly advanced the careers of both actors.
Cosby, who had achieved fame as a stand-up comedian, proved he could act. Culp, who had played mostly heavies in movies and TV, went on to become a film star.
He followed I Spy with his most prestigious film role, in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
Big idea: Culp as Sly Wells in the 1975 British action thriller Inside Out, who comes up with a plan to recover six million dollars of Nazi gold
The work of first-time director Paul Mazursky, who also co-wrote the screenplay, it lampooned the lifestyles of the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Bob and Carol (Culp and Natalie Wood) were the innocent ones who were introduced to wife-swapping by their best friends, Ted and Alice (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon).
Culp also had starring roles in such films as The Castaway Cowboy, Golden Girl, Turk 182! and Big Bad Mama II.
More recently, he appeared in the video for Eminem's 1999 hit single, Guilty Conscience.
His teaming with Cosby, however, was probably his best remembered role.
Cosby won Emmys for actor in a leading role all three years that I Spy aired, and Culp, who was nominated for the same award each year, said he was never jealous.
'I was the proudest man around,' he said in a 1977 interview.
Both he and Cosby were involved in civil rights causes, and when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968 the pair traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to join the striking garbage workers King had been organizing.
Culp and Cosby also co-starred in the 1972 movie Hickey and Boggs, which Culp also directed. This time they were hard-luck private detectives who encountered multiple deaths.
Audiences who had enjoyed the light-heartedness of I Spy were disappointed, and the movie flopped at the box office.
Last updated at 7:30 AM on 25th March 2010
Actor Robert Culphas has died after collapsing outside his Hollywood home yesterday.
The star, who teamed with Bill Cosby in the racially groundbreaking TV series I Spy and appeared as Bob in the critically acclaimed sex comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, was taken to hospital but pronounced dead. He was 79.
His manager, Hillard Elkins, said the actor had been on a walk when he fell.
The actor's son was told he died of a heart attack, Mr Elkins said, though police were unsure if the fall was medically related.
Los Angeles police Lt. Robert Binder said no foul play was suspected. Mr Binder said a jogger found Culp, who apparently fell and struck his head.
Culp had been working on writing screenplays, Mr Elkins said.
I Spy, which aired from 1965 to 1968, was a television milestone in more ways than one. Its combination of humour and adventure broke new ground, and it was the first integrated television show to feature a black actor in a starring role.
Culp played Kelly Robinson, a spy whose cover was that of an ace tennis player. In real life, Culp actually was a top-notch tennis player who showed his skills in numerous celebrity tournaments.
Cosby was fellow spy Alexander Scott, whose cover was that of Culp's trainer. The pair travelled the world in the service of the U.S. government.
The series greatly advanced the careers of both actors.
Cosby, who had achieved fame as a stand-up comedian, proved he could act. Culp, who had played mostly heavies in movies and TV, went on to become a film star.
He followed I Spy with his most prestigious film role, in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
Big idea: Culp as Sly Wells in the 1975 British action thriller Inside Out, who comes up with a plan to recover six million dollars of Nazi gold
The work of first-time director Paul Mazursky, who also co-wrote the screenplay, it lampooned the lifestyles of the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Bob and Carol (Culp and Natalie Wood) were the innocent ones who were introduced to wife-swapping by their best friends, Ted and Alice (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon).
Culp also had starring roles in such films as The Castaway Cowboy, Golden Girl, Turk 182! and Big Bad Mama II.
More recently, he appeared in the video for Eminem's 1999 hit single, Guilty Conscience.
His teaming with Cosby, however, was probably his best remembered role.
Cosby won Emmys for actor in a leading role all three years that I Spy aired, and Culp, who was nominated for the same award each year, said he was never jealous.
'I was the proudest man around,' he said in a 1977 interview.
Both he and Cosby were involved in civil rights causes, and when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968 the pair traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to join the striking garbage workers King had been organizing.
Culp and Cosby also co-starred in the 1972 movie Hickey and Boggs, which Culp also directed. This time they were hard-luck private detectives who encountered multiple deaths.
Audiences who had enjoyed the light-heartedness of I Spy were disappointed, and the movie flopped at the box office.