EDITOR’S NOTE: Given Robert Culp’s sudden passing, the second part of my FAT BOY CHRONICLES interview will be pushed to next week.
Robert Culp called me one evening to discuss a funny independent feature called THE ALMOST GUYS. It was in 2004, and we chatted about many things.
“There is a scene in THE ALMOST GUYS where your character is asked why, at his age, he would get back into the repossession biz.” I asked Robert Culp back then. “And his response is the best writing in the movie, something about reaching a certain age and doing nothing but looking back at the past and trying to recapture some of that past magic. Is this something that keeps you acting? Or are you still future looking in your career?”
“Jonathan, I’m certainly forward looking in my career, but the point is that is what happens to every single solitary human being on earth.” Culp said profoundly. “It is the natural process of life and that is why it rings the bell with anyone who hears it.”
“Yeah, I’m 33 and it rang my bell.” I quipped at the time.
“It applies to you, but you’re much younger, so, it hasn’t really applied to you to the heart yet, but it will, if you survive that long.”
Robert Culp died yesterday reportedly after a fall near his home. He was 79.
Culp’s career spanned six decades. His recurring role on THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO was how he endeared himself to my generation. Culp played agent Bill Maxwell, who assisted wacky and unlikely superhero Ralph Hickley (William Katt) in missions to save the world, or, at least, part of it. Culp often had all the best lines. And his steady presence on the show bridged the gap between parents, who remember Culp fondly from his I SPY days, and their children who latched onto the comic book story-line.
Culp shared a little of his acting method in our 2004 interview. In THE ALMOST GUYS, he played the Colonel, an older guy who repossesses cars. We spoke about his approach to crafting the character. The film was written and directed by Eric Fleming.
“In talking with Eric, he said that when he first met you that you were perhaps too spry for the role.” I said in the interview.
“Spry is not a look, spry is behavior.” Culp responded quickly. “And when I came in the door, I came in as I usually do with a good deal of energy. And what he had written was [laughter], was literally a guy on his last legs and doddering, and I don’t dodder. I knew what I wanted to do, I thought after I first met him [Fleming]. But by the time I met him the second time, I was really interviewing him because I wanted to know if this guy could direct. There is no sense in doing a wonderful script with somebody who can’t direct because that is a disaster. And by the time we finished improvising, I gave him a green light and he gave me a green light and we decided that we really liked each other and we were going to have fun and that was everything.”
“Did you then take the improv and create your transformation into the Colonel?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s simpler than that Jonathan, after you fool around with it a little while, you come up with signposts, and the signposts literally are the names of other actors or characters that you’ve seen somebody play. In other words, something clear cut to go for like an accent that you try to imitate that adds authenticity to the role. But in this case, it’s behavior, for example, what I wound up with or tried to wind up with in this role was a combination of the two Walters that I have always worshipped. Walter Brennan physically, and intellectually, if you will, Walter Huston. These two Walters formed this character, the Colonel.”
“Any particular performances?”
“Sure, you will recall Walter Brennan in two pictures, THE WESTERNER and in the Hemingway piece, well, it was supposed to be Hemingway they just jacked up the title and wrote a new story underneath it, Howard Hawks’ TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. He [Brennan] walked with that peculiar limp and I loved it when I was a kid and adopted it for this role.”
Culp continued.
“And it happened to fit because I was having a problem with my right foot at that time, so, that part was terrific and it was automatically going to work. The other side, the Walter Huston side of it, really comes from TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE in which he is the wisest of the wise but he doesn’t always show it.”
Peeking into an actor’s method can be revealing of the person. Robert Culp created some very memorable characters during his long career. But as he showed in my interview with him in 2004, he was humble about the success he had in constructing those characters. Robert Culp will be missed.
THE ALMOST GUYS is available on dvd. Culp’s last role, according to IMDB, is in Timothy J. Nelson’s THE ASSIGNMENT that is currently in post-production.
