Actor David McCallum, who became a teenage heartthrob in the 1960s hit series The Man From UNCLE and 40 years later was the eccentric medical examiner in the popular NCIS, has died. He was 90.
McCallum died Monday of natural causes surrounded by his family at New York Presbyterian Hospital, CBS said in a statement.
“David was a gifted actor and writer and was loved by many around the world. He lived an incredible life and his legacy will live on forever through his family and the countless hours of film and television that will never fade,” CBS said in a statement.
Scottish-born McCallum achieved success with his appearances in the 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 UNCLE” that made the blonde actor with the Beatlesque haircut a household name in the mid-’60s.
The success of the James Bond books and films had set off a chain reaction in which secret agents became increasingly popular on screens both big and small. According to Jon Heitland’s The Man From UNCLE Book, Bond creator Ian Fleming actually contributed some ideas when The Man From UNCLE was being developed.
The series, which premiered in 1964, starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo, an agent of a mysterious high-tech crime-fighting force 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’s Russian sidekick.
The role was relatively small at first, McCallum recalled, adding in a 1998 interview, “I had never heard of the word ‘sidekick’ before.”
The show was met with mixed reviews but eventually found wide appeal, particularly among teenage girls who were drawn to McCallum’s good looks and enigmatic, intellectual character. In 1965, Illya was a full partner to Vaughn’s character and both stars were harassed during personal appearances.
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The series lasted until 1968. Vaughn and McCallum reunited in 1983 for a nostalgic TV movie called The Return of the Man from UNCLE, in which the agents were lured out of retirement to save the world once again.
McCallum returned to television in 2003 in another series with an agency known by her initials – CBS’s “NCIS.” He played Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, a book pathologist for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, an agency that investigates crimes involving the Navy or Marines. Mark Harmon played the NCIS boss.
McCallum said he thought Ducky, who wore glasses and a bow tie and had an eye for pretty women, “looked a little silly, but it was a lot of fun.” He also took the role seriously and spent time in the office Los Angeles coroner’s office to gain insight into how autopsies are conducted.
The series gradually gained audience and eventually reached the list of top 10 shows. McCallum, who lived in New York, lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica when “NCIS” was in production.
“He was a scholar and a gentleman, always amiable, a consummate professional and never one to miss a joke. From day one it was an honor to work with him and he never let us down. He is simply a legend, said a statement from “NCIS” executive producers Steven D. Binder and David North.
McCallum’s work on “UNCLE” earned him two Emmy nominations, and he received a third as an educator struggling with alcoholism in a 1969 Hallmark Hall of Fame drama titled “Teacher, Teacher.”
In 1975 he had the title role in the short-lived science fiction series The Invisible Man and from 1979 to 1982 he played Steel in the British science fiction series Sapphire and Steel. He also appeared in guest appearances on numerous TV shows over the years, including Murder, She Wrote and Sex and the City.
He appeared on Broadway in the 1968 comedy “The Flip Side” and in the 1999 revival of “Amadeus” starring Michael Sheen and David Suchet. He also appeared in several Off-Broadway productions.
McCallum had lived in the United States for most of the 1960s and was a long-time American citizen. He told The Associated Press in 2003, “I’ve always loved the freedom of this country and everything it stands for. And I live here and I love voting here.”
David Keith McCallum was born in Glasgow in 1933. His parents were musicians; his father, also named David, played the violin and his mother played the cello. When David was three years old, the family moved to London, where David Sr. played with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic.
Young David attended the Royal Academy of Music, where he learned the oboe. He decided he wasn’t good enough, so he turned to theater and studied briefly at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. But “I was a short, emaciated, sunken-chested blonde, so there weren’t particularly many roles for me ” he commented in a 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times.
After a break from military service, he returned to London and began working on live television shows and films. In 1957, he appeared in Robbery Under Arms, an adventure film set in early Australia, with aspiring actress Jill Ireland. The couple married that same year.
In 1963, McCallum was part of the large cast of The Great Escape and he and his wife became friends 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.
“It all worked out well,” McCallum said in 2009, “because shortly afterward I met Katherine (Carpenter, a former model) and we have been very happily married for 42 years.”
McCallum had three sons from his first marriage, Paul, Jason and Valentine, and a son and daughter from his second marriage, Peter and Sophie. Jason died of an overdose.
“He was a true Renaissance man – he was fascinated by science and culture and transformed those passions into knowledge. “For example, he was able to conduct a symphony orchestra and actually perform an autopsy (if necessary) based on his decades of studies for his role on NCIS,” Peter McCallum said in a statement.
In 2007, while working on “NCIS,” McCallum told a reporter, “I always felt like the harder I work, the luckier I get.” I believe in random things happening, but at the same time it’s that The best way to get by in this life is to be dedicated to what you do.”
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Bob Thomas, a longtime Associated Press journalist who died in 2014, was the lead author of this obituary.