"I was born ten days ago. A full-grown man, born ten days ago. I woke on a street of this city.
I don't know who I am, or where I've been, or where I'm going. Someone wiped my memories clean.
And they tracked me down and tried to kill me. Why? Who are you? I ran. I managed to escape them the first time.
Then the hand, my hand, told me what to do."
---Trent (Robert Culp) from "Demon with a Glass hand".
Name: Robert Martin Culp
Birthdate: August 16, 1930
Profession: actor, writer, director, film critic
Mini-bio:
Robert Culp starts his career in the mid-1950's for television and appears, among other thing, in an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (see “A Man Greatly Beloved”). In 1957, Culp has his own show: the western series "Trackdown" for which he writes one script and that launches the career of Steve McQueen through a spin-off entitled “Wanted: Dead or Alive”. in 1960, he meets director Sam Peckinpah and plays in one episode of "The Westerner" but plays twice and writes one script for "The Rifleman".
1963 is an important date: his first groundbreaking cinema part in “PT 109” (the biography of JFK’s youth during WWII; also starring Cliff Robertson as Kennedy) and his first TV trilogy occurs that year with the sci-fi anthology "The Outer Limits" in which he guest stars twice during season 1 and once during season 2 for the single best offering entitled “Demon with a Glass Hand”, written by Harlan Ellison. For the anecdote, Culp wished to adapt the script into a feature film (Cf. "Robert Culp, Harlan Ellison & The Outer Limits" by Mark Burbey in "Filmfax", n° 63-64, October-January 1998). The same year, Culp appears again with Cliff Robertson but in a love comedy entitled: "Sunday in New York", starring Rod Taylor and Jane Fonda.
Among his 1960's TV parts, find one segment of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (see “Goodbye, George”), one "Combat!" (see “Hill 256”), one "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (see “The Shark Affair”).
In 1965, Robert Culp writes a pilot for himself that turns into the first episode of an espionage series entitled "I Spy" that lasts three seasons. He stars as a government agent working undercover as tennis pro Kelly Robinson followed by his coach, language expert Alexander Scott played by Bill Cosby. He writes seven scripts and directs one episode for "I Spy".
I Spy Forums
http://billswoman.proboards74.com/
http://www.network54.com/Forum/172251/
In 1969, he plays the lead in a popular "hip" film entitled "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" directed by Paul Mazursky.
He participates at two 1970 episodes of "The Name of the Game" and plays the role of reporter Paul Tyler (see episodes “Cynthia is Alive and Living in Avalon” and “Little Bear Died Running”) as one of the four replacements of the fired leading star Tony Franciosa.
His second TV trilogy occurs in 1971 with the detective show "Columbo".
Culp directs only one feature film: "Hickey & Boggs" (1972) starring himself and his "I Spy" partner Bill Cosby.
In the course of the 1970’s, he participated in a lot of television movies whose one remain a reference: “A Cold Night's Death” (1973) which forestalled the iceland setting and the tense characters’ intercourses from John Carpenter’s “The Thing”.
In 1981, he stars in his last popular series: “The Greatest American Hero” as F.B.I. agent Bill Maxwell.
He writes a review--published in the 1994 anthology book entitled "Doing It Right: The Best Criticism on Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch"-- about the western feature film "The Wild Bunch" (1969), directed by his friend Sam Peckinpah.
Favourite works as an actor:
Television Series:
THE OUTER LIMITS
Physicist Allen Leighton in "The Architects of Fear"
http://membres.lycos.fr/tmcr/daystar/tol_s1/tol_eps03.shtml
Dr. Paul Cameron in "Corpus Earthling"
http://membres.lycos.fr/tmcr/daystar/tol_s1/tol_eps09.shtml
Robot Trent in "Demon with a Glass Hand"
http://membres.lycos.fr/tmcr/daystar/tol_s2/tol_eps37.shtml
COLUMBO
Investigator Brimmer in "Death Lends a Hand"
http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/season1.htm#1.2
Paul Hanlon in "The Most Crucial Game"
http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/season2.htm#2.3
Dr. Bart Keppel in "Double Exposure"
http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/sea3.htm#3.4
Television Movies:
*Scientist Dr. Robert Jones in “A Cold Night's Death" (1973)
http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/009105.html
*NASA head Steve Bell in "Houston, We've Got a Problem" (1974)
*Criminologist William Sebastian in "Spectre" (1977)
BOOKS
"The Outer Limits Companion"
by David J. Schow
(GNP/Crescendo Book, 1998, 403 pages, ISBN 0-9665169-0-7)
"I Spy – A History and Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series"
by Marc Cushman and Linda J. LaRosa
Foreword by Robert Culp
(McFarland, 2007, 442 pages, ISBN 0-7864-2750-7)
"Television Fright Films of the 1970s"
by David Deal
(McFarland, 2007, 230 pages, ISBN 978-0-7864-2929-5)
Robert Culp as Dr. Paul Cameron in a photomontage from "Corpus Earthling". 