I-Spy Star Robert Culp Dies After Fall

Beloved I Spy actor Robert Culp has died after falling on a sidewalk near his Hollywood home. He was 79. The debonair actor appeared in dozens of TV shows, from '50s westerns to Everybody Loves Raymond, over a 50-year career and starred in movies including 1969's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Cosby paid tribute to Culp yesterday, saying he had been like an older brother to him.

"No matter how many mistakes I made on I Spy, he was always there to teach and protect me," Cosby told the Los Angeles Times. I Spy was the first TV show with a black actor in a starring role. At Culp's suggestion, Cosby said, "we agreed to make the relationship between the white character and the black man a beautiful relationship, so that people could see what it would be like if two cats like that could get along." Off the set, Cosby and Culp were close friends and teamed up to support civil rights causes.
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