'I Spy' star Robert Culp dead at 79

US actor Robert Culp, who starred alongside Bill Cosby in the 1960s television series "I Spy," died Wednesday in his Hollywood home after collapsing nearby, his spokesman told AFP.

He was 79.

"Mr. Culp was walking in a park this morning, outside his home, and fell. We do not know if it could have been a heart attack, and he has died. He was taken to the hospital where was pronounced dead after 11:00 am (1800 GMT)," spokesman Dick Delson said.

Additional details of Culp's death would be made available by investigators, he said.

Culp's acting career began in the late 1950s but only took off when he landed the role of a globe-trotting secret agent - he played Cosby's tennis trainer in their undercover work - in the popular 1965-1968 series "I Spy."