David McCallum, U.N.C.L.E.’s cool Russian, dies

David McCallum in a Man From U.N.C.L.E. publicity still

David McCallum, the Scottish-born actor who gained fame playing Russian agent Illya Kuryakin on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., died on Monday less than a week after turning 90, Variety reported.

Variety’s story included a statement from McCallum’s son, Peter. “He was the kindest, coolest, most patient and loving father. He always put family before self. He looked forward to any chance to connect with his grandchildren.”

The Kuryakin role was only a fraction of a career that lasted more than 60 years. For example, he played a British officer in 1963’s The Great Escape and Judas in 1965’s The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Years earlier, he was in the cast of Hell Drivers, a 1957 film whose cast included future spy craze stars Sean Connery and Patrick McGoohan as well as Stanley Baker, and Herbert Lom.

In terms of a continuing role, McCallum played Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard on NCIS far longer than he portrayed Illya Kuryakin.

Still, the role of the enigmatic Kuryakin in the 1964-68 series made McCallum a star.

The actor took a part, originally intended as a sidekick, into the equal of Napoleon Solo, played by Robert Vaughn.

Kuryakin, as originally scripted by Sam Rolfe, was supposed to be a large “Slavic man.” Instead, it was cast with the 5-foot-8 McCallum. The actor, in an interview for a 2007 home video release of the series, said the only information he had was the character had “jazz records under” his bed.

Kuryakin only had a few lines in the show’s pilot, The Vulcan Affair. But writer Alan Caillou, a British spy during World War II, expanded the character in two first-season episodes, The Quadripartite Affair and The Giuoco Piano Affair.

As written by Caillou, Kuryakin knew a lot about gypsies and was very protective about a woman, Marion Raven (played by his then-wife Jill Ireland), who witnessed her father being killed.

Caillou also wrote the first Kuryakin-centric episode, The Bow-Wow Affair, involving gypsies enticing dogs to attack their masters. Solo uses an intercom to ask Kuryakin if he’s free to attend a meeting.

“No man is free who has to work for a living,” McCallum’s Illya replies. “But I’m available.”

By that time, Kuryakin was an established part of the show. Earlier, NBC’s West Coast executives, including Grant Tinker (whose instincts normally were better) wanted to get rid of Kuryakin.

The production team claimed to have misunderstood Tinker’s instructions. The part of the U.N.C.L.E. chief was recast with Leo G. Carroll replacing Will Kuluva. But executive producer Norman Felton had intended to replace Kuluva for the series all along.

The series avoided emphasizing how Kuryakin was a loyal Soviet working at the multi-national U.N.C.L.E. There were little references here and there but given the Cold War tensions of the era they were subtle.

In The Project Strigas Affair (an episode that guest starred William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, two years before Star Trek), McCallum’s Illya spent much of the story in a disguise resembling a young Trotsky.

In another episode, The Love Affair, Vaughn’s Solo and McCallum’s Illya approach a Long Island approach a mansion that’s the site of a party for the rich.

“Suddenly, I feel very Russian,” Illya says.

Solo replies to start a revolution if he doesn’t get out soon enough.

1960s ad with David McCallum referencing The Man From U.N.C.L.E., pitching U.S. Savings Bonds

McCallum’s Kuryakin was so popular, he appeared in ads marketing U.S. Savings Bonds. For American audiences, Illya may have been a Soviet, but he was our Soviet.

During the course of the series, McCallum and Ireland divorced. He met Kathy Carpenter, a model, during a photo shoot with Robert Vaughn. McCallum and Carpenter became an item, marrying in 1967. (He got time off during U.N.C.L.E.’s fourth season, which is why Kuryakin doesn’t appear in The Man From Thrush Affair.)

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was canceled by NBC in January 1968 after 105 episodes.

McCallum stayed busy in the decades that followed. But he never shed the association with Kuryakin.

In 1998, The New York Times ran a feature on McCallum. It began with this passage:

As paranoid as it sounds, David McCallum is absolutely certain he is being shadowed by a Russian agent.

”He’s there every day,” Mr. McCallum said in a stage whisper as he peered over a pair of sunglasses. ”I mean, it’s been 30 years, but I can’t escape him. Illya Kuryakin is there 24 hours a day.”

McCallum’s role in NCIS, starting in 2003, eased that. Still, the series included an episode with an in-joke. Mark Harmon’s agent Gibbs is asked what Ducky looked like as a young man. “Illya Kuryakin,” Gibbs replies.

In 2015, McCallum finally witnessed another actor, Armie Hammer, assume the role of Kuryakin in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie. McCallum, in an interview on Fox News, endorsed both the film and his successor. “I envy him his height,” McCallum said of the 6-foot-5 Hammer.

In a later interview, McCallum said the 2015 version of Illya “was ridiculous.” In the 2015 movie, Illya was a borderline psychotic. He still complimented Hammer’s performance.

For fans of the original U.N.C.L.E. series, however, McCallum remained a giant.

Here’s a Wall Street Journal video interview from 2016 where McCallum discussed his career.

Here is another excerpt from an interview McCallum did about the role of Illya Kuryakin.