# Bomber Kulky?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 27, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367 "2016-01-27T14:20:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/1 "2016-01-27T14:20:34Z")

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Without doing your favorite web search (especially IMDb) can you say you recognize this name? Can you place its owner somewhere in history?

For the record, be that as it may, I’m now going to go look this person up. I believe his (?) given name is actually Henry. We shall see…

If nothing else, post an approximate date (year anyway) when you first read, saw or heard this name. 😃

Who or what do you associate “Bomber” with in entertainment history? What other oddball nickname goes with “Bomber” in your own history?

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/2 "2016-01-27T14:25:23Z")

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[Henry Kulky - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474628/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1)  
[Henry Kulky - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kulky)  
[henry kulky - Yahoo Image Search Results](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrB8p6.06hWQGMA1t2JzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBsZ29xY3ZzBHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEc2xrA2J1dHRvbg--;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNjI4NTcEX3IDMgRiY2sDMnQ2Z28wcGI5cGpicCUyNmIlM0Q0JTI2ZCUzRHNPNC5YbWxwWUVJUFl5YWwwZDBjajU1VFlPN1NLTHNVYmZtYXlBLS0lMjZzJTNENDclMjZpJTNEQ2QxYU83MnpJclV1M2NFTmhqQ1QEZnIDeWZwLXQtMjAxLXMEZ3ByaWQDMzI1eHlXT2JUaEdYd2dRZ2hwMldvQQRtdGVzdGlkA251bGwEbl9zdWdnAzQEb3JpZ2luA2ltYWdlcy5zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDBHFzdHJsAzEzBHF1ZXJ5A2hlbnJ5IGt1bGt5ICAEdF9zdG1wAzE0NTM5MDQ4NDMEdnRlc3RpZANCMTQ2Nw--?gprid=325xyWObThGXwgQghp2WoA&pvid=bm.9yTY5LjEumhgGVpzNeRNLMjA5LgAAAACY8TFC&p=henry+kulky++&fr=yfp-t-201-s&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&ei=UTF-8&n=60&x=wrt)

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**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/3 "2016-01-27T15:27:22Z")

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Never heard of him. The only other Bomber I know is our current President, Bronco Bomber.

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/4 "2016-01-27T15:41:41Z")

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> [@cjepson](#):
>
> Never heard of him. The only other Bomber I know is our current President, Bronco Bomber.

Good one! 😃 [I had to look that one up myself!](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bronco+bomber)

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/5 "2016-01-27T16:46:02Z")

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My guess:

Former athlete who played bit parts as a tough guy.

And it turns out I was more or less correct!

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/6 "2016-01-27T16:49:15Z")

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> [@kunilou](#):
>
> My guess:
> 
> Former athlete who played bit parts as a tough guy.
> 
> And it turns out I was more or less correct!

Yes! I was amazed at how many “uncredited” roles he had. All through his career, in fact.

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**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/7 "2016-01-27T16:54:32Z")

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One vote for “never heard of”.

Also, one vote for “in favor of sentences, prepositions ending with”

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/8 "2016-01-27T18:52:05Z")

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I did not cheat, and I knew who he was. I wasn’t familiar with his wrestling career, but I was a big “Voyage” fan. I first became familiar with the name, though in the mid 1990s when the then-Sci-Fi channel was running the “Voyage” series. I remembered the Chief from the series as a kid, but didn’t know the actor at the time.

One of those curiosities of casting and writing: Chief Curly Jones (Kulky) never really had a lot to do. Neither did the XO, Robert Dowdell. When Kulky died, and was replaced by Terry Becker’s Chief Sharkey, that character got a big “promotion” so far as screen time and writing was concerned.

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bomber-kulky/744367/9 "2016-01-27T19:20:01Z")

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Okay, I’m pretty sure I had noticed the face and acting skills before [The Life of Riley (1953–1958)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045406/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_24) but it was probably the character **Otto Schmidlap** that caused me to remember his name.

Before I did my lookup after posting the OP I was expecting to find him among the old comedies like the Bowery Boys, Our Gang, and that lot. He just had one of those faces.

I think I may also have fused his name with that of [Officer Krupke](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0104245/?ref_=tt_cl_t8) ([West Side Story (1961)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055614/)

But I haven’t the first clue about how he popped into my consciousness before starting the thread. Magic? 😃
