A COUPLE OF CULP CULPRITS

Years ago I wrote a Toobworld essay called "Culp Ability", about why so many TV characters looked like Robert Culp, the Hollywood star of "Bob And Carol And Ted And Alice". I'll be tweaking that essay soon to present it here in the Inner Toob blog. But in the meantime, I've taken out one of the candidates for inclusion because I think I have a better background check for him......

SIBLING DEVILTRY
Allen Leighton
'The Outer Limits'
"The Architects Of Fear"
Arthur Farnley Selwyn
(Captain Shark)
'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'
"The Shark Affair"

It's Toobworld Central's Theory of Relateeveety that Allen and Arthur were twin brothers. The reason for the name change? It could be that their parents separated and each parent raised one of the boys. Eventually Mrs. Leighton remarried and Arthur's step-dad adopted him and gave him his surname.

But the boys stayed in contact and both of them developed a concern for the future of Mankind and the safety of Earth. (This probably grew out of their views about their own family lives.) Unfortunately, both of them took misguided actions in trying to combat the growing threat to the world. Allen Leighton became a scientist who joined with others in a plan to band Humanity together in a common cause by making them believe that the Earth was threatened by a potential alien invasion. Allen volunteered to undergo the painful injections and surgeries necessary to transform him into a believable alien being.

However, his "spaceship" went off course and he was shot by hunters out in the woods. Dying, he staggered back to the secret facility where he was reunited with his wife (who never believed that he was killed in a plane crash as she was told at the beginning of the project.)

Mrs. Leighton was pregnant by this point, so Allen's branch of the family tree lived on. A look through the IMDb list of characters with the last name of "Leighton" could probably turn up at least one person who could have been Allen's offspring...... Meanwhile, Arthur also was convinced that the world would soon destroy itself in a nuclear holocaust, so he turned to piracy as Captain Shark. His intentions were noble - he planned to gather the people and supplies needed to repopulate the Earth after Armegeddon. U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin were able to stop him and rescue his captives, but Captain Shark chose death over capture and went down with his ship.

It is unknown if Arthur Selwyn left behind any children of his own.....

BCnU!