David McCallum, who became one of TV’s biggest stars of the 1960s playing Russian spy Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and then won over a new generation of fans on the popular NCIS series decades later, has died aged 90, NCIS said on Monday.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of David McCallum and privileged that CBS was his home for so many years. David was a gifted actor and author, and beloved by many around the world,” NCIS wrote on social media.
Variety reported that he died of natural causes.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Las Vegas News Bureau / Handout
The Scottish-born son of two musicians had an acting career spanning seven decades that dated back to his student days in the 1950s at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where one of his classmates was future star Joan Collins.
He launched his career with supporting parts in a number of British films, including A Night to Remember in 1958, where he played Harold Bride, radio operator on the doomed Titanic.
He gained the attention of US audiences with his small, but pivotal role as one of the prisoners of war plotting a mass breakout from a German prison camp in the 1963 World War II classic The Great Escape.
The film featured a star-studded international cast including Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and James Garner. During filming, McCallum introduced his wife, Jill Ireland, to costar Charles Bronson, whom she married after leaving McCallum.
McCallum also guest-starred in a number of US television shows including The Outer Limits and the legal drama Perry Mason, where he did a comic turn as a hapless, unlucky-in-love Frenchman.
In 1964, he appeared in the pilot of a spy series starring American actor Robert Vaughn as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. McCallum’s part, in which he spoke only a few lines, was to prove his launchpad to international fame.
The show was designed as a showcase for Vaughn as the dashing Napoleon Solo, battling nefarious agents from THRUSH. McCallum played fellow U.N.C.L.E. agent Illya Kuryakin. Sporting a blond Beatles haircut, and cloaked in mystery and sex appeal, he quickly became a hit with fans and was elevated to costar, alongside Vaughn.
The role earned McCallum two Emmy nominations and the status of a pop culture idol. MGM, which produced the show, said he attracted more fan mail than any other star in the studio’s celebrated history, although McCallum later said that “Vaughn got as much as I did.”
McCallum reunited with Vaughn in a 1983 TV movie, Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E., and a 1986 episode of The A-Team titled “The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair.”
Vaughn died in 2016.
In subsequent years, McCallum remained busy, especially on TV, starring in the British series Colditz from 1972 to 1974 and Sapphire & Steel from 1979 to 1982. He also appeared as a guest on a number of popular US TV shows, including Hart to Hart, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Law and Order and Sex and the City.
A new brush with fame awaited when McCallum took on the role of medical examiner Donald “Ducky” Mallard on the CBS military detective show NCIS. It was one of US TV’s most popular programs during a run exceeding 19 years.
However, even with his success on NCIS, in which he appeared into his 80s, McCallum never quite escaped the aura of the character that made him famous.
The lead investigator in NCIS, played by Mark Harmon, is asked in one episode what McCallum’s character looked like as a younger man.
“Illya Kuryakin,” he replied.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS