Culp Bounce Back

Actor, writer and director Robert Culp has played many roles in his life. It was a credit to his talent that few people saw the agony he battled daily in his fight with arthritis. Now, having found a way to manage the pain and return to a normal life, Culp is ready to talk about his recovery. Always an active man, Culp used his talents to play action roles such as Kelly Robertson in “I Spy,” and FBI agent Bill Maxwell in the early 80’s series “The Greatest American Hero.” Little did he know the wear and tear he was putting on his body, or that one day he would have to pay. Culp’s arthritis struck him in all the places he had sustained injury when he was younger. “Whatever I had done to my body in my youth was coming back to haunt me,” he admits ruefully. He had broken toes without knowing how he had done it and repeatedly torn the cartilage in his knees playing tennis. In high school, after landing on his head and injuring his neck when his pole broke during a vault, Culp competed in a meet less than two weeks after the accident to letter in track. “I hope you enjoy your letter when you’re 40,” he remembers his doctor telling him after the meet. Although arthritis never brought his acting career to a complete halt, it did slow him down by becoming the main focus of his life. “I can not think of anything that affects my life more severely than my arthritis,” states Culp, looking back at a time before he had learned to manage his pain. Previous to taking dietary supplements the actor could not walk without a limp, and many times found himself unable to move without crouching forward. He was forced to wear extra wide shoes and cut holes into the false soles he would place inside them, allowing room for his swollen joints. “I would wear black shoes with a tuxedo,” said Culp. “”I couldn’t get my feet inside regular dress shoes.” Now, Robert Culp has his pain as well managed as his career. Culp has been using MSM, a sulfur-containing supplement that lessens inflammation and reduces pain, for over a year, and believes the results were dramatic. Stated Culp, “I walk like a normal person now.” Although he admits that his life is not pain-free, he feels he can manage it. He has a reoccurring role in the successful sitcom, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and is working on the TV pilot, “Hold the Baby.” And the arthritis? “Although I never really let it get in the way of my professional life, I finally feel like I have it under control, something I never thought would be possible.”