The “Man from U.N.C.L.E” television show in the 60’s is a very fond childhood memory. My friend Gail and I discussed and re-enacted each episode on the school playground after it aired. It was great to have a buddy who studied all the cool dialog, and knew all the inside stuff. You know, the important background details. Not just details about what U.N.C.L.E. stood for (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement)- but what the bad-guy organization THRUSH stood for (the Technical Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity, of course!)
The U.N.C.L.E. show was a campy look at good guy spies battling the forces of evil in the world, using cutting edge technologies. My friend was suave Napoleon Solo, and I was the mysterious Illya Kuryakin. We were saving up to buy that cool communicator pen. We enthusiastically followed our heroes until the show ended in 1968. As kids, the U.N.C.L.E. show was deadly serious, a glimpse of a world we were sure we’d face in an exciting adulthood. We of course would stand up for righteousness and good, fighting clear obvious evils to the end.
Brooding Russian character Illya Kuryakin was my first childhood crush. So after the “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” show, I grew into a lifelong fan of the actor David McCallum. And the Scottish actor never disappointed me. He was as gracious in his interactions and personal life, as any fan could ever hope. He was in some notable films and shows, pursued good causes such as the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, and had family that he doted on.
As I followed McCallum’s career, he became a catalyst for experiences I would never have had otherwise. I count him as an integral part of my life from my childhood on. I gained many fine memories and happy experiences with loved ones as we pursued our common fandom. There was volunteer work at a Boston bike race AIDS fundraiser that David rode in, and NY trips to see him in various plays (“Amadeus,” “The Comedians” – even “Julius Caesar” in Central Park). There’s a framed playbill on the wall, with an autograph obtained in a side alley with my friend as McCallum left the Broadway theater. And there was a crazy just-in-the-nick-of-time travel adventure with more friends, just to get to a little Cape Cod theater in time to see David perform in “Angel Street” there.
Later I did a trip to a fundraising event in frosty Omaha, NE. The fundraiser was built around a movie viewing of the German war camp drama “The Great Escape.” That movie btw was a fateful event in David’s personal life. The classic movie was filled with many great actors- Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn. On the set, David introduced his then-wife Jill Ireland to friend Charles Bronson. Subsequently, when their marriage ended in divorce, she married Bronson. David fortunately got through that rough patch, and later found Katherine Carpenter, who was his wife for 56 years. David and I both got through some ups and downs in life, sometimes together it seemed.
In 2016 in Los Angeles, I went to David’s book signing of his mystery book “Once a Crooked Man.” This new writing facet was not surprising, as McCallum was multi-talented. (A classically trained musician, he’d conducted instrumentals on 4 albums for Capitol Records in the 60’s). Of course by this time I was a faithful NCIS fan, looking forward weekly to his appearances as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard on the top-rated series. He developed his eccentric medical examiner role when he was 70, gaining new generations of fans for two decades.
David McCallum, so intertwined with my many good life experiences, is gone now. It makes me sad- like a big piece of my childhood and life is departed now too. But I take out my pen communicator, because I just have to say: “Job well done, David. You are greatly missed. Out.”
