Robert Culp

Robert Culp (1930-2010) was interviewed for three hours in Los Angeles, CA.  Culp talked about his childhood interests and how he aspired to be an animator for Disney when he grew up.  He talked about his acting training and his move to New York City, breaking into theater and television.  He explained how he was able to get work in television as an indirect result of the Hollywood Blacklist: since he was a newcomer, he had no affiliations.  He talked about his early experiences in Los Angeles as a struggling actor and described his first role as a series regular on the series Trackdown, which he called a “western Dragnet.” He spoke fondly of working with Dick Powell, whose Four Star Productions produced this series. He described some of the roles he had in a variety of the popular TV genres of the day— western, detective, medical, sci-fi— including his memorable parts on the classic sci-fi anthology The Outer Limits. He then spoke in great detail about the role and the series for which he is most closely associated: “Kelly Robinson” on I, Spy.  For this series he talked about the on-location shooting, working with co-star Bill Cosby (and the controversial casting of an African-American lead), and talked about some of the series’ episodes that he wrote as well as acted in.  He then spoke about two other series for which he memorably appeared: The Greatest American Hero and Everybody Loves Raymond. The interview was conducted by Stephen J. Abramson on November 6, 2007.