Robert Culp Movies
Robert Culp attended several West Coast colleges while training for a dramatic career. At 21, Culp made his Broadway debut in He Who Gets Slapped. Within six years, he was starring in his own TV Western, Trackdown. During the two-year run of this program, Culp began writing scripts, a habit he'd carry over to other series, notably The Rifleman and Gunsmoke. He made his first film in 1963, thereafter appearing sporadically on the big screen, most memorably as one of the four leads in the satirical Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1968). In 1965, Culp and comedian Bill Cosby were co-starred on the popular TV series I Spy. During the second of I Spy's three seasons, Culp made his directorial debut; he went on to helm episodes for several other TV programs, as well as the 1972 theatrical feature Hickey and Boggs, in which he was reunited with Cosby. He then essayed the semicomic role of CIA chief Bill Maxwell on the weekly TVer The Greatest American Hero (1980-1982), and played such film character roles as the President in The Pelican Brief (1993). Culp co-starred with Cosby for a 1994 I Spy TV-movie reunion. Married four times, Robert Culp's third wife was Eurasian actress France Nuyen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1981
The droll Stephen J. Cannell-produced superhero parody Greatest American Hero began its two-year network run with this two-hour pilot film on March 18, 1981. William Katt stars as Ralph Hinkley, a mild-mannered schoolteacher who happens to be in the proximity of an alien spaceship landing. Also witnessing the event is G-man Bill Maxwell, played by Robert Culp. The aliens entrust Hinkley with a magic flying suit, instructing him to use this wonderful garment as a means of fighting evil. Alas, Hinkley loses the user's manual for the suit almost immediately, which puts a crimp in Maxwell's plans to thwart an assassination. Connie Sellecca co-stars as Ralph's lady friend Pamela Davidson. Katt, Culp and Selleca were all retained for the Greatest American Hero series proper, though Katt's character name was changed to "Hanley" after John Hinckley's assassination attempt on President Reagan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
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Season one of the tongue-in-cheek fantasy adventure series The Greatest American Hero opens with the two-hour pilot episode, wherein high-school teacher Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) and FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp) come into possession of a red "super suit" and a book of instructions, both gifts from visiting extraterrestrials. Unfortunately, the book is soon lost, so that neither Ralph nor Maxwell are aware of all of the suit's remarkable powers. All Ralph knows is that, whenever he dons the outfit, he is able to fly around with the greatest of ease, a talent that Maxwell harnesses to battle crime and criminals -- beginning with the prevention of a hostile rebellion in the U.S., spearheaded by the corrupt vice president. The only other people who know of Ralph's "secret identity" are his attorney girlfriend, Pam Davidson (Connie Sellecca), and a motley quartet of students from Ralph's remedial education class: Tony (Michael Paré), Rhonda (Faye Grant), Cyler (Jesse D. Goins), and Rodriguez (Don Cervantes). Throughout the first season, Branden Williams makes sporadic appearances as Kevin Hinkley, Ralph's son from a previous marriage. Halfway through season one, Ralph suddenly acquires a new last name. Suddenly, those around him are referring to Ralph as "Mr. Hanley," or sometimes merely "Mr. H." This hasty augmentation was brought about after a man named John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. Aware of this alteration -- and all too aware of the clumsy attempts to redub and rewrite episodes that had already been filmed -- some viewers developed a resentment for The Greatest American Hero and turned away in droves. Small wonder, then, that by the time the series inaugurated its second season in the fall of 1981, the hero was known as Ralph Hinkley again. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Katt, Connie Sellecca, (more)
- 1980
Old-time Hollywood director Vincent Sherman brings a glossy studio-bound look to The Dream Merchants, a two-part, four-hour adaptation of Harold Robbins' novel. The story follows the career of a pioneer filmmaker (Mark Harmon), who comes to Hollywood in the early 20th century with a pocketful of dreams and helps build the sleepy California orange-grove community into the world's entertainment capital. Typical of the Harold Robbins ouevre, most of the characters are based on real-life movie personalities: Robert Goulet's vainglorious matinee idol is a combination of John Barrymore and Douglas Fairbanks, while Vincent Gardenia's vitriolic mogul can be taken as a low-budget Louis B. Mayer. The film is rife with historical inaccuracies (Goulet is informed that the closeup has "just been invented by D. W. Griffith" as a means to convince him to sign a long-term contract assuring him plenty of closeups!), while the haircuts and speech patterns are firmly locked into the 1980s. All the same, The Dream Merchants was a profitable entry in the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" series of TV specials. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
A big-city blackout galvanizes the plot of the made-for-TV The Night the City Screamed. Recreating recent events in New York City, the film details a crime spree that runs unchecked throughout the darkened metropolis. Mayor Raymond Burr tries to stem the tide of robberies and rapes, even as he labors to becalm the panicky citizens. An all-TV-star cast, including Robert Culp, David Cassidy, Georg Stanford Brown and Don Meredith show up in brief, interlocking vignettes of "fear, panic, greed, hostility, rage and...love" (or so says the film's press kit). The Night the City Screamed was originally telecast December 14, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond Burr, Robert Culp, (more)
- 1979
Somehow the sleek and sophisticated Kate Mulgrew isn't whom we pictured as the wife of the eternally unkempt Lt. Columbo, but Universal Television was looking for ratings, not credibility (it got neither). Mrs. Columbo: Word Games is the 2-hour pilot for the Mrs. Columbo TV series, which premiered February 26, 1979. Mother, homemaker and reporter for a neighborhood newsletter, Kate Columbo exhibits her husband's sleuthing prowess when she investigates a violent quarrel between neighboring couple Robert Culp and Edie Adams. Kate is laughed off when she insists that Culp has announced plans to murder Edie; what results is a double murder. When Mrs. Columbo bombed, Universal revamped the project, dropped the "Columbo" tie-in (and the marriage), and released the results as Kate Loves a Mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Mulgrew
The phenomenal success of the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots all but demanded a sequel to writer Alex Haley's epic story of his African and African-American forebears. Debuting February 18, 1979, Roots: The Next Generations picked up where its predecessor left off, with Haley's slave ancestors winning their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even so, life for black Americans was wrought with hardship and oppression thanks to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the staunch refusal of the white power structure to pass anti-lynching laws, and the formation of the dreaded Jim Crow laws which legalized racial segregation in the South (and much of the North). Covering the period from 1882 to the mid-1970s, the miniseries first focuses on blacksmith Tom Harvey (Georg Stanford Brown), great-grandson of Kunta Kinte (the protagonist of the original Roots), and his family. Meanwhile, reacting to the marriage of his son to a black woman, anal-retentive Southern colonel Warner (Henry Fonda) begins setting the legal wheels in motion to deny blacks like Tom the right to vote and to hold "white" jobs. A few decades later, Tom's son-in-law encourages his fellow blacks to stand firm against the KKK's reign of terror. His labors on behalf of his race are rewarded when his daughter Bertha (Irene Cara) becomes the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to receive a college education. It is Bertha Palmer who weds the equally ambitious Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood), who goes on to serve in WWI and to organize farmers and sharecroppers during the Depression. Simon's son Alex (played at various ages by Kristoff St. John, Damon Evans, and finally James Earl Jones) is just as determined to succeed in a white man's world as his father, and to that end becomes a professional writer after his own service stint in the Coast Guard during WWII. At the height of his professional success (largely due to his having ghost-written the autobiography of Muslim activist Malcolm X), Alex Haley pays a visit to his boyhood hometown -- where, almost by accident, he receives the first clue to his heritage, a clue that will lead him on an odyssey of self-discovery, arriving full circle at Kunta Kinte's birthplace in Africa. Although the miniseries' "money scene" was Haley's nervous interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell (Marlon Brando in a superb cameo turn), the climactic episode, in which Haley tearfully embraces the living African descendants of Kunta Kinte, is one of the most unforgettable moments in the history of network television. Running 12 episodes and 14 hours, Roots: The Next Generations concluded on February 25, 1979, playing to huge ratings all along the way and ultimately garnering several Emmy nominations (and one win). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Georg Stanford Brown, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1979
- PG
The very healthy looking Susan Anton is appropriately cast in Goldengirl. The daughter of a former Olympic athlete, Goldengirl (that's her name!) has been groomed for athletic competition since childhood. Her hero worship of her dad (Curt Jurgens) comes to an abrupt end when she finds out that he was an intimate of Adolf Hitler and that, through experimentation, he has converted his darling daughter into a near android. Somehow, Goldengirl must regain her humanity and sustain her integrity in the face of a myriad of celebrity endorsement deals. Originally intended as a two-part TV movie to be run in conjunction with the 1980 Olympics, Goldengirl was re-edited and released theatrically when the U.S. pulled out of competition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Anton, James Coburn, (more)
- 1979
In this drama, the new chief of staff at a Florida hospital tries to get the place to run smoothly. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
If it hadn't been a TV movie, Last of the Good Guys might have made a good episode of Car 54 Where Are You? The main good guy is rookie cop Dennis Dugan, who is assigned to take over for an ailing veteran police officer. When the replaced officer dies, Dugan realizes that the man's widow will never receive his maximum pension. Thus, Dugan and three fellow cops contrive to convince "by the book" desk sergeant Robert Culp that the dead man is still alive. Like many films of its era, Last of the Good Guys strives for political correctness by drawing the four compassionate cops from diverse ethnic and sociological backgrounds: One black (Ji-Tu Cumbaka), one Indian (Hampton Fancher), one Asian (Richard Narita), and one ex-hippie (Dennis Dugan, of course). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Culp, Dennis Dugan, (more)
- 1978
Originally titled Stories from the Bible, Greatest Heroes of the Bible was designed as a seven-part TV miniseries; evidently the specter of low ratings forced the network execs to telescope the presentation into four installments. The series began with the story of David (Roger Kern) and Goliath (Ted Cassidy). Next we were offered the tale of Samson (John Beck) and Delilah (Ann Turkel). The Flood was next on the agenda, with Lew Ayres as Noah. This was followed by Joshua (Robert Culp) at the walls of Jericho. Moses (John Marley) was the central character in the next chapter, followed by Solomon (Tom Hallick) and Bathsheba (Carol Lawrence). The story of Joseph (Sam Bottoms) and his Brethren rounded out the presentation. While other miniseries prided themselves on being lensed in Europe and the Mid-East, Greatest Stories of the Bible declared itself as an "All American Production;" for example, Canyon City, Utah, stood in for Jericho. This miniseries was telecast November 19, 20, 21 and 22, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
James R. Silke narrates this 1977 compilation of mayhem in the movies. This Rhino Video release features behind-the-scenes looks at how the stunts are done, and clips from 29 classic films that show heroes riding horses, falling off buildings, blowing up tanks, bare-knuckle fighting, and dodging bullets. Features footage of John Wayne, Hedy Lamarr, Glenn Ford, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth, and more. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- 1977
In this pilot for a TV series. Robert Culp stars as a top criminologist and dabbler in the occult. Gig Young is a drunken doctor who is "magically" cured of his alcoholism by Culp's housekeeper. Culp and Young decide to team up as the Holmes and Watson of the exorcist set. Their first assignment: Get the goods on a licentious, megalomaniac financier (James Villiers), who seems to have achieved success through literally diabolical means. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Culp, Gig Young, (more)
- 1976
Having already exhausted the dramatic possibilities of fire with The Towering Inferno, producer Irwin Allen turns to water in the made-for-TV Flood! The film is set in a small community, conveniently (for the purposes of the plot) located near a huge earthen dam. As the flood waters rise and the dam threatens to collapse, we are made privy to the individual reactions of such all-star victims-to-be as Robert Culp, Martin Milner, Richard Basehart, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Hershey, Teresa Wright and Carol Lynley. As in Inferno, helicopter pilots come to the rescue. Most of the film was shot in Eugene, Oregon. Flood! first aired on November 24, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- PG
In this broad comedy-western set in 1908 Colorado, Lee Marvin and Oliver Reed team up as Sam Longwood and Joe Knox, two con-men who once worked as a team. They reunite in order to get revenge upon their third partner, Jack Colby (Robert Culp), who used the trio's ill-gotten gains to become a high society big shot. Oliver Reed's ridiculously stereotypical portrayal of an Indian goes down in film history as the most absurd casting of a Native-American role since Howard Keel's "distinctive" portrayal of Levi Walking Bear in The War Wagon. Kay Lenz also appears as the sexy prostitute Thursday, who has an affair with Sam. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Marvin, Oliver Reed, (more)
- 1976
- PG
In Sky Riders, the off-camera tale behind the film cast a more interesting story than the film itself: when a Greek electrician died during an explosion, the film's producer, Terry Morse Jr., was arrested by the Greek government, and executive producer Sandy Howard was detained in Greece for several weeks. Finally, an out-of-court settlement was reached with the Greek government to release the film producer. The plot of the actual film has nothing to do with international incidents, although it does deal, on a comic-book level, with terrorism. The wife, Ellen (Susannah York), of an international industrialist (Robert Culp) and her two children are kidnapped from their Athens home by a terrorist group and taken to an abandoned monastery on an imposing, needle-shaped crag. The police immediately snap into action. Inspector Nikolidis (Charles Aznavour) attempts to free them, but the police force fails. Coming into the picture is Ellen's ex-husband, Jim McCabe (James Coburn). Pondering the situation, he notices a couple of crows in flight and gets a brainstorm. McCabe tracks down a flying circus of hang-gliding riders and requisitions them for the rescue. The hang gliders teach McCabe to fly, and McCabe teaches them to fight. Then, on the night of a full moon, the group glides off to the monastery to save Ellen. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Susannah York, (more)
- 1976
- R
Director Bob Clark would graduate from the Canadian Breaking Point to such films as Porky's and A Christmas Story, proving beyond a doubt that it is possible to overcome a bad start. Bo Svenson stars as a mild-mannered teacher--glasses and all. He witnesses a mob murder, whereupon he is put into a witness protection program by cop (Robert Culp). When mobsters show up to rub out Svenson, the authorities are helpless, so suddenly "Mr. Peepers" becomes "Rambo". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bo Svenson, Robert Culp, (more)
- 1975
When an anonymous girl calls in saying that she is going to commit suicide, a radio announcer must garner the help of all of his radio audience to help find her to prevent her accomplishing it. This is made more difficult by the fact that he is an unpopular announcer. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1975
- PG
Telly Savalas, James Mason and Robert Culp join together to discover a hidden cache of $6 million in Nazi gold in this action caper retitled both Hitler's Gold and The Golden Heist. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Telly Savalas, Robert Culp, (more)
- 1975
A Cry for Help (working title: End of the Line) stars Robert Culp as an acerbic, Don Imus-like radio talk show host. When one of his callers, an anxious young woman, threatens to kill herself, Culp laughs it off. Later, however, he realizes that the girl wasn't kidding, and mounts a frantic effort-with the help of his loyal audience-to locate the would-be suicide. Richard Levinson and William Link's script stretches the tension level to the snapping point, and you'll love every minute of it. Made for television, A Cry for Help originally aired February 12, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- G
James Garner stars as a genial cowboy in this wholesome slice of Disney family fare. Garner is Lincoln Costain, a cowboy in the 1850s who finds himself shanghaied and shipwrecked on a Hawaiian island. He runs into luckless widow Henrietta MacAvoy (Vera Miles) and helps her turn her struggling potato farm into a prosperous cattle ranch. But evil land baron Bryson (Robert Culp) wants all the land for himself and he holds Henrietta's mortgage. Lincoln had been planning to leave Hawaii and return to his Texas home, but decides to stay and help the beautiful widow fend off Bryson's land-grabbing greed. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Vera Miles, (more)
- 1974
Predating the Oscar-nominated theatrical feature Apollo 13 by over two decades, the made-for-TV Houston, We've Got a Problem dramatized the same real-life crisis in space from a different point of view. It was back in 1970 when an explosion on board Apollo 13 forced Mission Control to scuttle the vessel's intended moon landing. Unfortunately, the astronauts and the NASA control team faced an even bigger dilemma -- the very real possibility that the Apollo 13 capsule would remain hovering in space forever, with no possible hope for a return to the earth. Unlike the film version of Apollo 13, in which the men on board the ill-fated craft were spotlighted, the TV movie focused exclusively on the NASA engineers in Houston, and the families and friends of the endangered space travelers. In fact, Jim Lovell and his crew weren't even shown onscreen, save for a random TV news clip. Houston, We've Got a Problem debuted March 2, 1974, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
A murderous robber returns home to his loving family after he serves 18 years for his crimes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Colonial America provides the backdrop for the adventures of a peddler who comes from the wilderness into the meetings of the founding fathers. ~ All Movie Guide
