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David McCallum, the Scottish-born actor who became a surprise sensation as the enigmatic Russian spy Illya Kuryakin on \u201cThe Man From U.N.C.L.E.\u201d in the 1960s and found television stardom again almost 40 years later on the hit series \u201cN.C.I.S.,\u201d died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 90.<\/p>\n
CBS, the network that broadcasts \u201cN.C.I.S.,\u201d confirmed his death in a statement.<\/p>\n
Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Mr. McCallum was an experienced character actor who could use an accent or an odd piece of clothing to give depth to a role. He played a wide range of parts across theater, film and television, from Shakespeare\u2019s Julius Caesar in Central Park in 2000 to the voice of Professor Paradox on the animated television series \u201cBen 10: Ultimate Alien,\u201d a decade later.<\/p>\n
He was hired in 1964 to play Illya Kuryakin, the Russian-accented sidekick of Robert Vaughn<\/a>\u2019s Napoleon Solo, on \u201cThe Man From U.N.C.L.E.,\u201d a tongue-in-cheek series about secret agents working for the fictional United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. His part was meant to be small; he had just four lines in the first episode. He suggested that Illya be made more interesting by having him be closemouthed about his personal life (\u201cNobody knows what Illya Kuryakin does when he goes home at night,\u201d he told one interviewer) and somewhat antagonistic to Solo.<\/p>\n The writers began to build up his character, and he became a fixture of the series and a two-time Emmy Award nominee. Somewhat to his annoyance, he also became a sex symbol.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n With his mysterious air, his Beatle haircut and his trademark black turtleneck, Mr. McCallum was a magnet for teenage fans. Sent on a publicity junket for the show to Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1965, he was mobbed by screaming female students and had to be rescued by police officers.<\/p>\n \u201cMcCallum\u2019s motorcades are now, by order of the police chiefs of the cities he visits, forbidden to stop anywhere along the line of drive,\u201d The New York Times reported in a 1965 profile. \u201cIf the entourage slowed, there would be carnage in the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Man From U.N.C.L.E.\u201d ended in 1968, and Mr. McCallum retreated happily to lower-profile roles. He continued to work steadily, mostly in B-movies and in supporting parts on television. He also played the title role in the short-lived series \u201cThe Invisible Man\u201d (1975-76) and Emperor Joseph II in a revival of \u201cAmadeus\u201d on Broadway in 1999.<\/p>\n But everywhere he went, he said, the Russian secret agent stalked him. \u201cIt\u2019s been 30 years, but I can\u2019t escape him,\u201d he told The Times in 1998. \u201cIllya Kuryakin is there 24 hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 2003, the Russian shadow finally met his match in the bow-tied, bespectacled and eccentric medical examiner Donald Mallard, better known as Ducky, on the hit CBS crime series \u201cN.C.I.S.\u201d He remained with the show, which consistently ranked in the Nielsen Top 10, for two decades. He was still a member of the cast at his death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In interviews, Mr. McCallum said that besides Julius Caesar, Dr. Mallard was his favorite role, in part because it taught him so much about forensics. He studied with pathologists in Los Angeles and even sat in on autopsies, learning enough that the show\u2019s writers would ask him for technical advice.<\/p>\n David Keith McCallum Jr. was born on Sept. 19, 1933, into a musical family in Glasgow. His father was the first violinist for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London; his mother, Dorothy Dorman, was a cellist. He would later tell interviewers that his Scottish Presbyterian upbringing had left him emotionally circumscribed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe Scots, we tend to be awfully tight inside,\u201d he told TV Guide in 1965. \u201cIt has hurt me as an actor to be so \u2014 so naturally restricted.\u201d<\/p>\n Expected to follow in the family footsteps and pursue a career in music, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Music to study oboe. But he found himself drawn to acting and switched to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. (He never completely lost interest in music, however; at the height of his \u201cU.N.C.L.E.\u201d fame, Capitol Records released several albums under his name, on which he conducted instrumental renditions of pop hits.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. McCallum was drafted into the British military in 1951 and served two years, including 10 months in what is now Ghana as a small-arms expert. Not long after his discharge, he signed with the Rank Organization, a British production company, and began acting both in movies and on television.<\/p>\n He met Jill Ireland, already a rising actress in Britain, when they were both cast in the Rank production \u201cRobbery Under Arms\u201d in 1957. He proposed seven days after they met, and they married that spring. In 1961, when he was cast as Judas Iscariot in \u201cThe Greatest Story Ever Told\u201d (the movie would not be completed and released until 1965), the couple moved to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n They appeared to flourish. They had three children. She became a busy TV actress and made several guest appearances on \u201cThe Man From U.N.C.L.E.,\u201d playing three different characters.<\/p>\n But the strain of Mr. McCallum\u2019s stardom took a toll on their marriage, and she left him for the actor Charles Bronson, whom she had met when Mr. McCallum and Mr. Bronson were both filming \u201cThe Great Escape\u201d (1963). Less than a year after their divorce in 1967, Mr. McCallum married Katherine Carpenter, a model.<\/p>\n She survives him, along with their children, Peter and Sophie McCallum; two sons from his first marriage, Paul and Valentine; and eight grandchildren. A third son from his first marriage, Jason, died of a drug overdose in 1989. <\/p>\n Mr. McCallum and his wife lived in Manhattan. CBS said that he died in a hospital but did not say why he had been hospitalized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When \u201cN.C.I.S.\u201d made Mr. McCallum a television star for the second time, he found fame much less oppressive than he had the first time. \u201cIn New York now I leave 15 minutes \u2014 because I walk everywhere in New York \u2014 between appointments because I am going to be stopped on the street to talk about N.C.I.S. for at least 15 minutes,\u201d he told BBC Radio in a 2009 interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI love it,\u201d he said, when asked if he ever grew tired of that kind of attention. \u201cI\u2019ve never got fed up with anything in my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Traub contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n