Scottish actor and musician David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the 1964 hit series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and was the eccentric medical examiner in the popular television show NCIS 40 years later, died Monday of natural causes in New York City. He was 90.
His son Peter made a statement on behalf of his family, saying, “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, and had a unique bond with each of them. He and his youngest grandson, Whit, 9, could often be found in the corner of a room at family parties having deep philosophical conversations.
“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.
“After returning from the hospital to their apartment, I asked my mother if she was OK before she went to sleep. Her answer was simply, “Yes. But I do wish we had had a chance to grow old together.” She is 79, and dad just turned 90. The honesty in that emotion shows how vibrant their beautiful relationship and daily lives were, and that somehow, even at 90, Daddy never grew old.”
David Keith McCallum was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to a father who was the first violinist for the London Philharmonic and a mother who was a cellist. Thus he originally pursued a career in music, training on the oboe and studying for a time at the Royal Academy of Music, though he soon left and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After RADA he started performing with repertory theater companies.
He had actually begun his professional acting career when he was 12, in 1946, performing for the BBC radio repertory company.
McCallum made his screen debut in the BBC fantasy miniseries “The Rose and the Ring” in 1953. The actor appeared in the big screen crime dramas “The Secret Place,” “Hell Drivers” and “Violent Playground” in the late ’50s along with the Australian Western “Robbery Under Arms,” starring Peter Finch.
In the 1958 film “A Night to Remember,” about the Titanic, he had a small role as a wireless operator. He did a lot of British television at this stage in his career, including a 1959 BBC adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s “Antigone” and BBC adaptations of Jane Austen’s “Emma” in 1960 and “Wuthering Heights” in 1962.
In 1961, he appeared in the stark, claustrophobic British-made WWII film “The Long and the Short and the Tall” (aka “Jungle Fighters”) along with Richard Harris, Richard Todd and Laurence Harvey, and he had supporting role in Peter Ustinov’s “Billy Budd” and John Huston’s “Freud” the following year.
McCallum starred in the 1963 high-profile, monumentally successful American-made film “The Great Escape,” starring Steve McQueen and a host of others. He was a key supporting player as a member of the team nicknamed “Dispersal,” and though his performance is not the first thing one remembers from the film, it allowed him to break through. In George Stevens’ 1964 Christ epic “The Greatest Story Every Told,” starring Max Von Sydow, McCallum played Judas, further boosting his profile — the New York Times said, “David McCallum’s Judas Iscariot oozes a chilling treachery.”
The actor guested on American TV shows including “Perry Mason” and “The Outer Limits” just as he began his run on “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”
McCallum starred in the critically acclaimed BBC-Universal Television series “Colditz,” which ran from 1972-74 and followed the lives of British prisoners held in castle by the Nazis during WWII. In 1975 he starred in the NBC sci-fi drama “The Invisible Man,” but it lasted only a season. He starred in a critically hailed miniseries adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped” for Britain’s ITV, and starred opposite Joanna Lumley in the ITV sci-fi series “Sapphire & Steele,” which ran for six seasons beginning in 1979.
He reunited with Robert Vaughn, who was a series regular on the last season of NBC’s “The A-Team,” for an episode of that series called “The Say Uncle Affair” in 1986.
McCallum guested on “The Father Dowling Mysteries,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “SeaQuest 2032,” “Babylon 5,” “Law & Order” and even “Sex and the City,” and the actor had a small role in the charming British-Irish film “Hear My Song” (1991); on the BBC during this time he was a series regular on “Trainer.”
In the U.S. he recurred on Fox’s ahead-of-its-time cyber-thriller “VR.5,” starring Lori Singer, in 1995-97, and on Richard Dreyfuss vehicle “The Education of Max Bickford” in 2001.
When he guested on “JAG” in 2003, at the age of 70, in the backdoor pilot for “NCIS,” McCallum had no idea that he was about to fill his dance card for the next decade-plus.
At the height of his fame in the 1960s, McCallum recorded four albums for Capitol Records. However, these were not opportunities for him to sing; instead, the classically trained musician conceived a blend of oboe, English horn, and strings with guitar and drums, presenting instrumental interpretations of current hits. Though someone else was officially credited as the arranger on the albums, McCallum conducted some of the music and contributed several original compositions.
In 2016 McCallum’s mystery novel “Once a Crooked Man” was published.
McCallum was twice married, the first time to actress Jill Ireland. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Katherine McCallum, his sons Paul McCallum, Valentine McCallum and Peter McCallum, his daughter Sophie McCallum and his eight grandchildren: Julia McCallum, Luca de Sanctis, Iain de Sanctis, Stella McCallum, Gavin McCallum, George McCallum, Alessandro de Sanctis and Whit McCallum.
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