This news came to me a bit late–and as a bit of a shock. Robert Culp, one of my favorite actors – – has passed away. He and Bill Cosby starred in the original “I Spy” television series together. In the 80s, Culp joined the cast of “The Greatest American Hero.”
And the early 90s he starred in one of the first FMV video games for the Philips CDI: Voyeur. Voyeur is not revolutionary or even that great of a game. However, it does afford me the chance to post about Culp’s participation in what was considered a controversial video game. At the time of its release Congress was reviewing regulations on video game violence and suggestive content. I wonder if his friendship with Hugh Hefner is somehow connected with him getting a role in “The first interactive adult movie.” (That link is work safe.)
He may not have been an A-Lister, but in my book he was cool. RIP Robert Culp.
5 Comments
RIP indeed. He did the voice of Dr. Breen in Half-life 2 as well.
You know I’ll bet he was pretty proud to be a part of all this stuff.
1. I Spy was a Sheldon Leonard production that pioneered on-location shooting around the world and also was the first American television show to have an African American lead.
2. The Greatest American Hero was definitely unique in it’s delivery of a dramedy with a reluctant super-hero who is forced to work with a government agent as the focus.
3. The aforementioned Voyeur being a first of it’s kind… And although not entirely unique–as there were other full motion video games at the time–it was definitely part of the wagon train of pioneering FMV games.
4. Half Life 2 is known as one of the most critically acclaimed video games in video game history. It was also the first video game to require online product activation.
He had to know that whatever he got into was going to be unique in some way.
I would have liked to have seen him play Casey’s dad on an episode of Chuck.
That would have been freakin’ cool. Good call, S!
Would have been a nice homage to I Spy as well, if the episode were written right.