The recent LA Times obituary of actor Robert Culp leaves out one  very important role that Mr. Culp played in the last decade of his life: Dr. Wallace Breen, antagonist in Valve’s brilliant PC Game “Half Life 2“. Yes, I still remember him starring in “I, Spy” with Bill Cosby, but even as I kid I thought these guys were pretty goofy to be real detectives or spies. Cosby was cool though and since my racist father never watched it with me, I never knew it was the first big TV part for a black man. I just liked the way the two guys had fun together, so what if they were different colors.  I also remember Mr. Culp vividly in an Outer Limits episode (written by the brilliant Harlan Ellison) called “Demon With a Glass Hand” (he played in two other episodes in that series). If you look through his groovy website robertculponline.com he’s literally played hundreds of roles on TV, Film and Radio. His background and interest in the theater went from crazy homemade marionette shows to receiving the first Obie Award for playing HE, a clown in “He Who Gets Slapped”. Roles in NY eventually led him west to Hollywood and TV. All in all he worked professionally for more than 50 years in a profession that makes mincemeat out of even the best. I admire Robert Culp and am sad that he is dead.

My heartfelt sympathies go out to his family and friends

And you know, even though he probably played more complex and deeper characters, it’s his performance as Dr. Wallace Breen that I will remember him for. Perhaps it’s the fact that HL2 is a permanent part of my imagination (I’ve probably played the game a dozen times or more) and his vocal performance is the epitome of the craft. HL2 has become more than a game to me and Dr. Breen has taken on a life of his own. A life created entirely from the script (which is suspect had a lot of improv) and from Mr. Culp’s experience in life. You see, I think he based this character on the kinds of people he met in his career as an actor. The false-faced fellow who can barely hide his loathing and contempt for the rest of the people around him; especially if things aren’t going his way. Producers, directors, writers who fit this kind of misanthropic image are a dime a dozen in Hollywood and I’m sure there were times that Mr. Culp probably wanted to slug people for being so rude and thoughtless. I also think his growing up in the fifties (he turned 20 in 1950) where the events of WWII were being hashed out in books, film and in the newspapers, had something to do with it. The Nuremberg trials were a very big deal in the late forties and the hatred for “collaborators” was widespread (see the McCarthy hearings). All of this became a part of his palette as an actor.

There’s something about Mr. Culp’s portrayal of Breen that gets under your skin. Perhaps it’s the fact that you hear Breen upon arrival at City 17 right through to the end of the game (called “Breencasts” at the HL2 wiki). His voice becomes so persistent and annoying with it’s petulance and sarcasm, you start to tune him out as you (the game player) become more and more focused on Gordon. You start to think like Gordon, “who is this asshole?”. And making him eat his words becomes part of your motive for getting through the game. At least it was for me.

And all of this comes from a guy standing in a sound booth interpreting lines on a page he probably didn’t even memorize or have an opportunity to rehearse. Mr. Culp played Breen like a good bebop sax player riffing on a standard melody, but going off on his own at times.  Only the best actors understand that a villain never thinks of himself as such. Dr. Breen’s preening, posturing arrogance comes from a conviction that he’s utterly right and that he’s doing what’s best for everyone as overseer of Earth for the Combine. Of course, Dr. Breen knows what the hell he’s doing is despicable, but he represses this and so when Gordon challenges him throughout the game, Dr. Breen’s anger and loathing for Gordon (really loathing for himself) spills over more and more as the game progresses. I think Mr. Culp understood this instinctively as an actor and worked to give Breen an offbeat sense of humor to make him more like the people he knew through his career who shared that self-loathing.

Take Mr. Culp’s approach to Breen’s annoyance at being labelled a “Collaborator”. Here is the text of his announcements over the viewing monitors throughout City 17:

Breencast on “Collaboration”

It has come to my attention that some have lately called me a collaborator, as if such a term were shameful. I ask you, what greater endeavor exists than that of collaboration? In our current unparalleled enterprise, refusal to collaborate is simply a refusal to grow–an insistence on suicide, if you will. Did the lungfish refuse to breathe air?

It did not.

It crept forth boldly while its brethren remained in the blackest ocean abyss, with lidless eyes forever staring at the dark, ignorant and doomed despite their eternal vigilance.Would we model ourselves on the trilobite? Are all the accomplishments of humanity fated to be nothing more than a layer of broken plastic shards thinly strewn across a fossil bed, sandwiched between the Burgess shale and an eon’s worth of mud?

In order to be true to our nature, and our destiny, we must aspire to greater things. We have outgrown our cradle. It is futile to cry for mother’s milk, when our true sustenance awaits us among the stars.And only the universal union that small minds call ‘The Combine’ can carry us there. Therefore I say, yes, I am a collaborator. We must all collaborate, willingly, eagerly, if we expect to reap the benefits of unification.

And reap we shall.

(this comes from the Valve Developer entry on Dr. Wallace Breen. His other speeches are there, too)

Now, the voice director at Valve may have told Culp that his voice would be appearing on big monitors and possibly that the speech is bit like Big Brothers pronouncements in Orwell’s 1984, but I suspect not. Mr Culp is such a talented and experienced actor, I think they basically tried to stay out of his way and probably gave him room to improvise and offer suggestions. Try as I might, I can’t find any interviews or comments about the actual working session with Culp or the other actors, so most of this is just speculation, but I don’t think I’m very far off.

Let’s listen to what Mr. Culp did with these lines, or at least what the final edit was as it appears in Half Life 2 game. Be sure to read the text above while you listen to the recording:

There are so many great things that Mr. Culp does with these lines. I think the Valve audio editors made a wise choice to record him close to the mic and very slightly distorted (the wav file looks like there was some clipping) which gives Mr. Culps voice a blunt and slightly harsh tone. Perfect to contrast with Mr. Culp’s attempt to portray Breen as a reasoning man. Of course, it’s all double-talk, but he plays it as if it were gospel truth. His voice is reedy for the most part until he drops down into the lower register where it has that chain-smokers tone. In fact, if smoking weren’t such a contemporary taboo, I think Valve would have Breen smoking constantly. Certainly Mr. Culp grew up in a era of smoking (50′s) and probably smoked for most of his life and as an older man his voice is slightly horse and nasty sounding in the lower register. The last “And reap we shall” dips into this register and suggestions more reaping than what’s implied in the speech.

Robert Culp’s work as Breen is some of the best kind of acting we have in games. It’s honest, nuanced and filled with those extra things that only a 50 year career in Theater, TV and Film can give you. Compared to the much more resonant and warm tones of Alyx and Eli Vance, Breen sounds strained and harsh. Add to that an instinctive sense of rhythm and emphasis on a line and you get s remarkable piece of voice casting on Valve’s part and a little gem of a performance. And considering he could have easily phoned the performance in as some older, veteran actors do thinking that the work is beneath them, his subtle and passionate work is all the more remarkable.  Robert Culp was a true professional.

SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED HL2 YET DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER

One last little bit I’d like to add is my favorite moment in Mr. Culp’s performance which occurs towards the end of the game when Gordon, Alyx and Eli have all been captured and are hanging in those diabolical metal coffins, helpless in Breen’s office at the top of the Citadel. One of the guards brings Breen the anti-gravity gun which is a weapon that will change the entire course of the story and Breen is so arrogant, so eager to get to the gloating over his captured victims he glances at this powerful weapon and says, “Huh, wuzzat? Oh, put it over there”.  Mr. Culp throws this line away with such ease that you can feel the entire length of his career in the timing. Like Hank Aaron just reaching out and tapping the ball with his bat for a base hit. Brilliant.

For those who want to learn more about Robert Culp his personal website is fabulous. I’d also recommend watching “Demon with the Glass Hand”, some episodes of “I, Spy” and the feature film of “Bob&Carol&Ted&Alice” which is probably the height of his work as an actor.

Goodbye, Robert Culp, we will miss you.