Robert Culp, 79; starred on 'I Spy'

Robert Culp, 79, the actor who teamed with Bill Cosby in the racially groundbreaking TV series I Spy and was Bob in the critically acclaimed sex comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, died yesterday after collapsing outside his Hollywood home, his agent said.

His manager, Hillard Elkins, said the actor was on a walk when he fell. The actor's son was told he died of a heart attack, Elkins said.

Los Angeles Police Lt. Robert Binder said that no foul play was suspected and that a jogger found Mr. Culp, who apparently fell and struck his head.

I Spy, which aired from 1965 to 1968, broke ground with its combination of humor and adventure, and was the first integrated television show to feature a black actor in a starring role.

Mr. Culp played Kelly Robinson, a spy whose cover was that of an ace tennis player. (In real life, Mr. Culp actually was a top-notch tennis player.). Cosby was fellow spy Alexander Scott, whose cover was that of Mr. Culp's trainer.

Cosby said yesterday that Mr. Culp was like an older brother to him.

"The first born in every family is always dreaming of the older brother or sister he or she doesn't have, to protect, to be the buffer, provide the wisdom, shoulder the blows, and make things right," he said. "Bob was the answer to my dreams.

"No matter how many mistakes I made on I Spy, he was always there to teach and protect me," Cosby said.

Mr. Culp's most prestigious film role was in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, the work of first-time director Paul Mazursky, which lampooned the lifestyles of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Mr. Culp also had roles in such films as PT-109, The Castaway Cowboy, Golden Girl, Turk 182!, Big Bad Mama II, and The Pelican Brief.

His teaming with Cosby, however, was likely his best-remembered role. Cosby won Emmys for lead actor all three years I Spy aired; Mr. Culp, who was nominated for the same award each year, said he was never jealous.

"I was the proudest man around," he said in a 1977 interview.

Both he and Cosby were involved in civil rights causes. When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, the pair traveled to Memphis to join the striking garbage workers King had been organizing.

Mr. Culp and Cosby also costarred in the 1972 movie Hickey and Boggs, which Mr. Culp also directed. This time they were hard-luck private detectives. Audiences who had enjoyed the lightheartedness of I Spy were disappointed, and the movie flopped at the box office.

After years of talking up the idea, they finally teamed in 1994 for a two-hour CBS movie, I Spy Returns.

"His proudest moments were when he was writing and directing I Spy and Hickey and Boggs," Cosby said. "Bob was meticulous and committed."

More recently, Mr. Culp also had a recurring role in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and appeared in an episode of Cosby.

Robert Martin Culp, born in 1930 in Oakland, Calif., led a peripatetic existence as a student before landing at the University of Washington's drama school. A semester before receiving his degree, he moved to New York, where he began landing roles in off-Broadway plays, including He Who Gets Slapped. Good reviews and an Obie award led to offers from Hollywood.

Mr. Culp was married five times. He had four children.