Stephen Strimpell

Stephen Strimpell (January 17, 1934 – April 10, 2006) was an American actor, acting teacher, and director born in New York, New York. Before pursuing a career in performance, Strimpell completed a rigorous academic path, earning junior Phi Beta Kappa distinction at Columbia College, a law degree from Columbia Law School, and admission to the New York Bar.

Strimpell's stage career spanned Broadway, off-Broadway, and major regional theaters. His Broadway appearances ran from 1960 to 1964 and included The Sunday Man and King Henry IV, Part II. At Lincoln Center, he played the title role in The Disintegration of James Cherry, and his off-Broadway work included To Be Young, Gifted and Black and The Exhaustion of Our Son's Love. At the American Shakespeare Festival, Strimpell appeared alongside Katharine Hepburn and others in productions of 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 appeared at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, where he acted in Douglas Campbell's 1968 production of The Miser alongside Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and where he also worked as a director.

On television, Strimpell became best known for starring in the 1967 CBS comedy series Mister Terrific, produced by Universal Television and filmed at Universal Studios in Universal City. He played Stanley Beamish, a gas station attendant who transforms into a flying superhero. Though the series ran for only one season, it later developed a following as a cult favorite. Strimpell documented his experiences making the show in a personal account titled "The Amazing Mr. Terrific: How TV Actor Stephen Strimpell Survived the 'Flying Harness' and Other Inane Hollywood Inventions."

His film work included featured roles in more than a dozen pictures, among them Fitzwilly, Death Play, Jenny, The Angel Levine, Act One, and Hester Street. For many years Strimpell was also active as an acting teacher, holding classes at HB Studio in New York as well as in private instruction. He suffered heart failure and cardiac arrest on March 13, 2006, and died on April 10, 2006.