The marine oligotrich ciliate Strombidium sulcatum, the best known marine oligotrich of the marine microozoplankton, was first cultured in Villefranche-sur-Mer 35 years ago. Cultures were maintained from 1983 to 2003 and used in 22 studies investigating a very wide variety of questions. Here we review the major findings of these studies and underline their contributions to our knowledge of planktonic ciliate ecology and microbial ecology in general. We conclude with the observation that while ecophysiology has apparently fallen out of fashion, culture work will likely return as an invaluable resource in our present 'omics' era.