Actor Robert Culp dies after falling at his Hollywood home
Culp Actor Robert Culp, best known for his role as an international tennis star and globe-trotting secret agent in the hit 1960s television series "I Spy," died Wednesday morning after a fall at his Hollywood home, authorities said.
The 79-year-old actor was rushed to Queen of Angels hospital shortly after 11 a.m. after hitting his head while taking a walk outside his home in the 1800 block of El Cerrito Place, said LAPD Lt. Bob Binder. He was found by a jogger who called 911, and paramedics, patrol officers and detectives responded to the scene.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later. A preliminary investigation found "that his death is accidental and there appears to be no sign of foul play," Binder said. An autopsy by the Los Angeles County Coroner's office is pending.
Culp broke into Hollywood in the late 1950s but catapulted to fame playing Kelly Robinson in the hourlong 1965-68 espionage series "I Spy," which was shot in exotic locales around the world.
Besides its popularity, the show also broke the color barrier for dramatic television series as the first noncomedy series to star an African American actor, Bill Cosby.
Off screen, Culp has been active in civic causes, most recently in his efforts to oppose construction of an elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo.
In 2007, the actor joined with real estate agent Aaron Leider in filing a lawsuit against zoo director John Lewis and the city to stop construction of a $42-million elephant exhibit and bar the zoo from keeping elephants there, accusing authorities at the facility of withholding medical care from the animals and keeping them cramped in small places.
Last year, after temporarily halting construction on the elephant exhibit amid a fierce debate, the City Council voted to go ahead with the project as planned.
A full obituary is coming shortly from The Times.
-- Andrew Blankstein
Photo: Robert Culp in the action-adventure television series "I Spy."
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Robert Culp never cracked Emmy's secret code
March 24, 2010 | 4:48 pm
Robert Culp died TV news
Robert Culp may have portrayed a secret government agent on TV, but there's one thing he never spied on his mantle at home: an Emmy or Golden Globe.
Before his death today at age 78, Robert Culp was nominated by both of those awards, but he had bad luck. Actually, he had really bad luck at the Emmys considering that he lost best drama actor three years in a row (1966-68) to his "I Spy" costar Bill Cosby. Culp was also nominated once for writing (1967), losing to Bruce Geller ("Mission: Impossible"). That other hit espionage TV series, "Mission:Impossible," out-gunned "I Spy" twice in the battle over best drama series (1967, 1968). In 1966, "I Spy" lost to "The Fugitive."
Both Bill Cosby and Robert Culp lost best TV actor at the Golden Globes in 1967 to Dean Martin ("The Dean Martin Show"), but "I Spy" won best TV show that same year. Culp isn't listed as one of the technical winners of that statuette, but he deserves much of the credit for his dashing role as a spy parading as a pro tennis player.
Photo: Robert Culp and Bill Cosby in "I Spy" (NBC)
Veteran actor Robert Culp, who teamed with Bill
Cosby to break down racial barriers on the hit
1960s show "I Spy," died Wednesday after
collapsing outside his Hollywood home.
The 79-year-old actor was found on the ground by
a jogger who called 911, cops said.
The actor's son was told he died of a heart attack,
said Culp's manager, Hillard Elkins.
Culp was a versatile actor known for his dramatic
and comedic work on stage, television and movies.
He was debonaire and easily pulled off the man-in-
charge look, making him perfect for his roles as the
arrogant mayor of New York in 1985's "Turk 182"
- and as the corrupt president in 1993's "The
Pelican Brief."
But he first came into national prominence with "I
Spy," a television milestone that ran from 1965-68.
It was the first integrated television show featuring a
black actor as one of the leads.
Culp and Cosby traded quips as the show's cool co-
stars, combining humor and adventure in a style
copied for decades.
He and Cosby were also involved in civil rights
causes, and when Martin Luther King Jr. was
assassinated in 1968 the pair traveled to Memphis,
Tenn., to join the striking garbage workers King had
been organizing.
One of his most acclaimed film roles was as Bob in
the 1969 sex comedy, "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice."
On television he appeared for three seasons in the
1980s as an FBI agent for three seasons on "The
Greatest American Hero." And from 2000 to 2004,
he had a recurring role on the hit "Everybody Loves
Raymond" as Ray Barone's father-in-law.
Culp also worked as a director, and had dozens of
television credits across his half-century in the
business.
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