Stephen Strimpell (January 17, 1934 - April 10, 2006) was the star of the

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a prede ...

series '' Mister Terrific''.

Personal life

Strimpell was born on January 17, 1934. He was a junior

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

at Columbia College, a graduate of

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

, and a member of the New York Bar before embarking in earnest on his acting career. Well known for many years as a popular New York acting teacher at

HB Studio The HB Studio (Herbert Berghof Studio) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization offering professional training in the performing arts through classes, workshops, free lectures, theater productions, theater rentals, a theater artist residency progra ...

and in his private classes, Strimpell was also an accomplished actor, having played the title role in ''The Disintegration of James Cherry'' at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

and appearing in such off Broadway plays as ''To Be Young Gifted and Black'' and ''The Exhaustion of Our Son’s Love''. At the American Shakespeare Festival he appeared in plays with Katharine Hepburn, among others, including ''Antony and Cleopatra'', ''All's Well That Ends Well'', ''Romeo and Juliet'', ''Twelfth Night'', ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', and ''A Midsummer Night’s Dream''. He also had featured parts in over a dozen films, including '' Fitzwilly'', ''Death Play'', ''Jenny'', ''The Angel Levine'', ''Act One'', and ''Hester Street''. He directed at the Mark Taper Forum in

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, and appeared there in Douglas Campbell's 1968 production of ''The Miser'' with

Hume Cronyn Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. OC (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian-American actor and writer. Early life Cronyn, one of five children, was born in London, Ontario, Canada. His father, Hume Blake Cronyn, Sr., was a businessman and ...

and

Jessica Tandy Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British-American actress. Tandy appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe ...

Film acting

When Stephen Strimpell moved to Los Angeles, his most famous film role may have been in the 1967

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

comedy series owned by

, '' Mister Terrific'', filmed in Universal City at

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

, in which he played Stanley Beamish, an innocent gas station attendant, who morphed into the title character, a superhero with an ability to fly. Although the series lasted only one season, it had a second life as a cult favorite. Strimpell's personal account of his experiences doing Mr. Terrific appears in a long article, "The amazing Mr. Terrific: How TV actor Stephen Strimpell Survived the ‘Flying Harness’ and Other Inane Hollywood Inventions".

Death

On March 13, 2006, Stephen Strimpell suffered heart failure and cardiac arrest. He died on April 10, 2006.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strimpell, Stephen 1934 births 2006 deaths Male actors from New York City American male film actors 20th-century American lawyers American male stage actors Columbia Law School alumni 20th-century American male actors Columbia College (New York) alumni