David McCallum, star of hit TV series ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ and ‘NCIS,’ dies at 90

LOS ANGELES – Actor David McCallum, who become a youngster heartthrob within the hit series “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” within the Sixties and used to be the eccentric clinical examiner in the preferred “NCIS” 40 years later, has died. He used to be 90.

McCallum died Monday of herbal reasons surrounded by means of circle of relatives at New York Presbyterian Hospital, CBS mentioned in a remark.

“David 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,” mentioned a remark from CBS.

Scottish-born McCallum were doing smartly showing in such motion pictures “A Night to Remember” (concerning the Titanic), “The Great Escape” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (as Judas). But it used to be “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” that made the blond actor with the Beatlesque haircut a family identify within the mid-’60s.

The luck of the James Bond books and motion pictures had prompt a sequence response, with secret brokers proliferating on each massive and small monitors. Indeed, Bond author Ian Fleming contributed some concepts as “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” used to be being evolved, in step with Jon Heitland’s “The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Book.”

The display, which debuted in 1964, starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo, an agent in a secretive, high-tech squad of crime combatants whose initials stood for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Despite the Cold War, the company had a global body of workers, with McCallum as Illya Kuryakin, Solo’s Russian sidekick.

The function used to be fairly small at first, McCallum recalled, including in a 1998 interview that “I’d never heard of the word ‘sidekick’ before.”

The display drew combined evaluations however ultimately stuck on, in particular with teenage ladies attracted by means of McCallum’s just right seems to be and enigmatic, highbrow persona. By 1965, Illya used to be a complete spouse to Vaughn’s persona and each stars had been mobbed throughout non-public appearances.

The series lasted to 1968. Vaughn and McCallum reunited in 1983 for a nostalgic TV film, “The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” during which the brokers had been lured out of retirement to avoid wasting the sector yet again.

McCallum returned to tv in 2003 in every other series with an company identified by means of its initials — CBS’ “NCIS.” He performed Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, a bookish pathologist for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, an company dealing with crimes involving the Navy or the Marines. Mark Harmon performed the NCIS boss.

McCallum mentioned he idea Ducky, who sported glasses and a bow tie and had an eye fixed for beautiful girls, “looked a little silly, but it was great fun to do.” He took the function severely, too, spending time within the Los Angeles coroner’s place of job to realize perception into how autopsies are performed.

Co-star Lauren Holly took to X, previously Twitter, to mourn: “You were the kindest man. Thank you for being you.” The in the past introduced twentieth anniversary “NCIS” marathon on Monday evening will now come with an “in memoriam” card in remembrance of McCallum.

The series constructed an target audience regularly, ultimately achieving the roster of most sensible 10 presentations. McCallum, who lived in New York, stayed in a one-bedroom condominium in Santa Monica when “NCIS” used to be in manufacturing.

“He 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.

McCallum’s 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.”

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.”

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.

Largely based in the U.S. from the 1960s onward, McCallum was a longtime American citizen, telling The Associated Press in 2003 that “I have always loved the freedom of this country and everything it stands for. And I live here, and I like to vote here.”

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.

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, studying briefly at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. But “I was a small, emaciated blond with a caved chest, so there weren’t an awful lot of parts for me,” he commented in a Los Angeles Times interview in 2009.

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.

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.

“It all worked out fine,” McCallum said in 2009, “because soon after that I got together with Katherine (Carpenter, a former model) and we’ve 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, Peter and Sophie. Jason died of an overdose.

“He was a true Renaissance man — 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,” Peter McCallum said in a statement.

In 2007, when he was working on “NCIS,” McCallum told a reporter: “I’ve 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.”

___

Bob Thomas, an established Associated Press journalist who died in 2014, used to be the major creator of this obituary.