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

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series '' Mister Terrific''.

Personal life

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

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at Columbia College, a graduate of

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, 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

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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 ...

and appearing in such

off Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

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 Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...

, 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 ''Fitzwilly'' is a 1967 American romantic comedy film directed by Delbert Mann, based on Poyntz Tyler's 1960 novel ''A Garden of Cucumbers'' (the title refers tIsaiah 1:8 and adapted for the screen by Isobel Lennart. Its title refers to the nick ...

'', ''Death Play'', ''Jenny'', ''The Angel Levine'', ''Act One'', and ''Hester Street''. He directed at the

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

Hume Cronyn Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian-American actor, screenwriter and playwright. He appeared in many stage productions, television and film roles throughout his career, and garnered numerous accolades, includ ...

and

Jessica Tandy Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British actress. An icon in the film industry, she appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAF ...

Television

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

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comedy series owned by

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

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, 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 American male telenovela actors