Robert Culp: Biography

Robert Culp attended several West Coast colleges while training for a dramatic career. At 21, Culp made his Broadway debut in He Who Gets Slapped. Within six years, he was starring in his own TV Western, Trackdown. During the two-year run of this program, Culp began writing scripts, a habit he'd carry over to other series, notably The Rifleman and Gunsmoke. He made his first film in 1963, thereafter appearing sporadically on the big screen, most memorably as one of the four leads in the satirical Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1968). In 1965, Culp and comedian Bill Cosby were co-starred on the popular TV series I Spy. During the second of I Spy's three seasons, Culp made his directorial debut; he went on to helm episodes for several other TV programs, as well as the 1972 theatrical feature Hickey and Boggs, in which he was reunited with Cosby. He then essayed the semicomic role of CIA chief Bill Maxwell on the weekly TVer The Greatest American Hero (1980-1982), and played such film character roles as the President in The Pelican Brief (1993). Culp co-starred with Cosby for a 1994 I Spy TV-movie reunion. Married four times, Robert Culp's third wife was Eurasian actress France Nuyen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide