Stephen Strimpell (January 17, 1934 - April 10, 2006) was the star of
the Universal Television Mister Terrific.Strimpell was born on January
17, 1934. He was a junior Phi Beta Kappa at Columbia College, a
graduate of Columbia Law School, 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 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 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 Los
Angeles, and appeared there in Douglas Campbell's 1968 production of
The Miser with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.When Stephen Strimpell
moved to Los Angeles, California, his most famous film role may have
been in the 1967 CBS comedy series owned by Universal Television,
Mister Terrific, filmed in Universal City, Calif., at Universal
Studios, 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".
the Universal Television Mister Terrific.Strimpell was born on January
17, 1934. He was a junior Phi Beta Kappa at Columbia College, a
graduate of Columbia Law School, 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 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 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 Los
Angeles, and appeared there in Douglas Campbell's 1968 production of
The Miser with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.When Stephen Strimpell
moved to Los Angeles, California, his most famous film role may have
been in the 1967 CBS comedy series owned by Universal Television,
Mister Terrific, filmed in Universal City, Calif., at Universal
Studios, 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".
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