OUR Icon this week died last year but lives on in popular memory for two acting roles in American shows that brought worldwide fame: Russian secret agent Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and whimsical but canny medical examiner Dr Donald “Duckie” Mallard in NCIS.

The first role turned the actor into a global sex symbol, besieged by screaming teenage girls. He was handsome and seemed sophisticated. So it came as a shock to learn he was Scottish.

Yep. David Keith McCallum was born in Glasgow on September 19, 1933 and brought up in the city’s North Kelvinside district. His father David was an orchestral violinist, his mother Dorothy an accomplished cellist.

When Davie was three, his father became leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, so the family moved to Hampstead. Early in the Second World War, however, David was evacuated back to Scotland – no’ getting away that easy – living with his mother and her sister in a cottage at Gartocharn by Loch Lomond.

Later, at the height of his fame, McCallum claimed his Scottish Presbyterian upbringing had left him emotionally stunted, as if that were a bad thing: “We Scots,” he averred, “tend to be awfully tight inside.” Aye.

Elsewhere, he recalled: “I was born in Glasgow. I went to school in Gartocharn and at Stewarton School in Stirlingshire – across the hills in muddy boots with my jammy piece in my bag – and then came down to London.” Down indeed.

David won a scholarship to University College School – covering all the bases there – an “independent” day school where he played the oboe. His parents thought there was money in it.

But David had other ideas. He first got the acting bug when, aged eight, he played Prince Arthur in a production of the bold William Shakespeare’s King John. Applause – brilliant!

Dream come true
At 13, he began doing boy voices for the BBC radio repertory company and, at 17, appeared as Oberon in an open-air production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

He left school at 18 and, in 1951, became assistant stage manager of the Glyndebourne Opera Company until he was conscripted for National Service, which helped mould his character and make him a better person.

In a battalion seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force, his stint included 10 months as a small-arms expert in Ghana. After the Army, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where classmate Joan Collins briefly became his girlfriend. Meanwhile, a James Dean-themed photograph impressed the Rank Organisation, who signed him up.

Early roles included gang member in The Secret Place (1957), outlaw in Robbery Under Arms (1957), radio operator in A Night To Remember (1958), and juvenile delinquent in Violent Playground (1958). His first American film was John Huston’s Freud: The Secret Passion (1962), followed by a much-praised role in Peter Ustinov’s Billy Budd.

McCallum played a British officer in 1963’s The Great Escape and Judas Iscariot in 1965’s The Greatest Story Ever Told. In 1975, he played The Invisible Man in an NBC series, but few people saw that.

Then, in 1964, came a tongue-in-cheek TV series about two secret agents – one American, one Russian – working for the (wait for it) United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. UNCFLAE. Its deadly opponents were THRUSH: the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. Aye, thaim.

Aiming to conquer the world, THRUSH was considered so dangerous that the US and USSR joined forces to thwart it. Today, props from the series are exhibited at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and at the CIA’s museum.

Joans of story arcs
THE Man from U.N.C.L.E. featured high-profile guests such as the aforementioned Joan Collins, Boris Karloff, and Joan Crawford. Future Star Trek stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy appeared in one episode.

The show was initially intended as a vehicle for Robert Vaughn (as Napoleon Solo), but made McCallum, somewhat to his discomfort, into a sex symbol, his Beatle-style blond haircut and trademark black polo neck contrasting happily with Vaughn’s clean-cut mien. McCallum’s role as Kuryakin was originally small, a mere “sidekick” with few lines. McCallum, however, made him attractively enigmatic. Soon, he was the co-star.

Despite the show airing at the height of the Cold War, McCallum’s handsome Russian became a pop culture phenomenon. The actor was inundated with fan letters, and a Beatles-like frenzy greeted him wherever he appeared.

At Louisiana State University in 1965, police had to rescue “the Blond Beatle” from screaming female students. At Macy’s department store, hysterical fans caused $25,000 worth of damage, and Herald Square had to be closed so the actor could escape.

McCallum received more fan mail than Clark Gable and Elvis Presley. Hero worship even led to a record, Love Ya, Illya, performed by Alma Cogan.

Alas, as we know, all good things must end and, in an attempt to counter the competition from newer TV dramas, notably Batman, the show’s producers started majoring on camp humour, self-parody and slapstick, leading to a severe ratings drop that became terminal in 1968.

Kuryakin was a hard act to follow and, indeed, haunted McCallum for decades. “It’s been 30 years, but I can’t escape him,” he told The Times in 1998

After U.N.C.L.E, in Britain at least he remained a familiar face on television in shows like Colditz (1972/74), Kidnapped (1978), and sci-fi series Sapphire & Steel (1979/82) with Joanna Lumley.

There were guest roles in various productions then, in 2003, came another acronym and a second massive cult character: Dr Donald “Ducky” Mallard, no quack but an efficient if eccentric medical examiner in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service: NCIS.

(Image: .)

Dead clever
MCCALLUM loved the role so much he studied with pathologists, attended medical examiner conventions, and even sat in on autopsies, becoming so knowledgeable that the show’s writers consulted him for technical advice.

Ducky brought McCallum fan adulation again, though this time more subdued and pleasant. “I love it,” he said. “I’ve never got fed up with anything in my whole life.”

He remained an NCIS regular into old age, appearing in 20 seasons over two decades, becoming the last remaining member of the original NCIS cast until his death, which occurred of natural causes at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital on September 25, 2023, six days after his 90th birthday.

Gone but still streaming, as we say nowadays.