Islamabad SEPTEMBER 26 (Online): David McCallum worked in several films but was most famous for his work in the TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He died of natural causes.<\/p>\n
Actor David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the hit series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in the 1960s and was the eccentric medical examiner in the popular NCIS 40 years later, has died. He was 90. <\/p>\n
Actor David McCallumm of the television show The Man From U.N.C.L.E., poses in 1966.(AP)<\/p>\n
McCallum died Monday of natural causes surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital, CBS said in a statement. \u201cDavid was a gifted actor and author, and beloved by many around the world. He led an incredible life, and his legacy will forever live on through his family and the countless hours on film and television that will never go away,\u201d said a statement from CBS.<\/p>\n
Scottish-born McCallum had been doing well appearing in such films A Night to Remember (about the Titanic), The Great Escape and The Greatest Story Ever Told (as Judas). But it was The Man From U.N.C.L.E. that made the blond actor with the Beatlesque haircut a household name in the mid-’60s.<\/p>\n
The success of the James Bond books and films had set off a chain reaction, with secret agents proliferating on both large and small screens. Indeed, Bond creator Ian Fleming contributed some ideas as The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was being developed, according to Jon Heitland’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Book.<\/p>\n
The show, which debuted in 1964, starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo, an agent in a secretive, high-tech squad of crime fighters whose initials stood for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Despite the Cold War, the agency had an international staff, with McCallum as Illya Kuryakin, Solo\u2019s Russian sidekick.<\/p>\n
The role was relatively small at first, McCallum recalled, adding in a 1998 interview that \u201cI\u2019d never heard of the word \u2018sidekick\u2019 before.\u201d
\nThe show drew mixed reviews but eventually caught on, particularly with teenage girls attracted by McCallum\u2019s good looks and enigmatic, intellectual character. By 1965, Illya was a full partner to Vaughn\u2019s character and both stars were mobbed during personal appearances.<\/p>\n
The series lasted to 1968. Vaughn and McCallum reunited in 1983 for a nostalgic TV movie, The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E., in which the agents were lured out of retirement to save the world once more.<\/p>\n
McCallum returned to television in 2003 in another series with an agency known by its initials \u2014 CBS\u2019 NCIS. He played Dr. Donald \u201cDucky\u201d Mallard, a bookish pathologist for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, an agency handling crimes involving the Navy or the Marines. Mark Harmon played the NCIS boss.<\/p>\n
McCallum said he thought Ducky, who sported glasses and a bow tie and had an eye for pretty women, \u201clooked a little silly, but it was great fun to do.\u201d He took the role seriously, too, spending time in the Los Angeles coroner\u2019s office to gain insight into how autopsies are conducted.
\nLauren Holly shares condolences<\/p>\n
Co-star Lauren Holly took to X, formerly Twitter, to mourn: \u201cYou were the kindest man. Thank you for being you.\u201d The previously announced 20th anniversary NCIS marathon on Monday night will now include an \u201cin memoriam\u201d card in remembrance of McCallum.<\/p>\n
The series built an audience gradually, eventually reaching the roster of top 10 shows. McCallum, who lived in New York, stayed in a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica when \u201cNCIS\u201d was in production.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a scholar and a gentleman, always gracious, a consummate professional, and never one to pass up a joke. From day one, it was an honor to work with him and he never let us down. He was, quite simply, a legend, said a statement from NCIS Executive Producers Steven D. Binder and David North.<\/p>\n
McCallum\u2019s work with U.N.C.L.E. brought him two Emmy nominations, and he got a third as an educator struggling with alcoholism in a 1969 Hallmark Hall of Fame drama called Teacher, Teacher.<\/p>\n
In 1975, he had the title role in a short-lived science fiction series, The Invisible Man, and from 1979 to 1982 he played Steel in a British science fiction series, Sapphire and Steel. Over the years, he also appeared in guest shots in many TV shows, including Murder, She Wrote and Sex and the City.<\/p>\n
He appeared on Broadway in a 1968 comedy, The Flip Side, and in a 1999 revival of Amadeus starring Michael Sheen and David Suchet. He also was in several off-Broadway productions.<\/p>\n
Largely based in the U.S. from the 1960s onward, McCallum was a longtime American citizen, telling The Associated Press in 2003 that \u201cI have always loved the freedom of this country and everything it stands for. And I live here, and I like to vote here.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Keith McCallum was born in Glasgow in 1933. His parents were musicians; his father, also named David, played violin, his mother played cello. When David was 3, the family moved to London, where David Sr. played with the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic.<\/p>\n
Young David attended the Royal Academy of Music where he learned the oboe. He decided he wasn\u2019t good enough, so he turned to theater, studying briefly at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. But \u201cI was a small, emaciated blond with a caved chest, so there weren\u2019t an awful lot of parts for me,\u201d he commented in a Los Angeles Times interview in 2009.<\/p>\n
After time out for military service, he returned to London and began getting work on live television and movies, In 1957 he appeared in Robbery Under Arms, an adventure set in early Australia, with a rising actress, Jill Ireland. The couple married that same year.<\/p>\n
In 1963, McCallum was part of the large cast of The Great Escape and he and his wife became friendly with Charles Bronson, also in the film. Ireland eventually fell in love with Bronson and she and McCallum divorced in 1967. She married Bronson in 1968.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all worked out fine,\u201d McCallum said in 2009, \u201cbecause soon after that I got together with Katherine (Carpenter, a former model) and we\u2019ve been very happily married for 42 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCallum had three sons from his first marriage, Paul, Jason and Valentine, and a son and daughter from his second, Peter and Sophie. Jason died of an overdose.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a true Renaissance man \u2014 he was fascinated by science and culture and would turn those passions into knowledge. For example, he was capable of conducting a symphony orchestra and (if needed) could actually perform an autopsy, based on his decades-long studies for his role on NCIS,\u201d Peter McCallum said in a statement.<\/p>\n
In 2007, when he was working on NCIS, McCallum told a reporter: \u201cI\u2019ve always felt the harder I work, the luckier I get. I believe in serendipitous things happening, but at the same time, dedicating yourself to what you do is the best way to get along in this life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad SEPTEMBER 26 (Online): David McCallum worked in several films but was most famous for his work in the TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He died of natural causes. Actor David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the hit series The Man From […]<\/p>\n
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