David McCallum obituary: TV favourite from NCIS and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

For a certain generation, David McCallum will always be Illya Kuryakin, the mysterious Soviet agent in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The role turned the actor into a global sex symbol, his public appearances besieged by screaming teenage girls.

He cut his teeth in 1950s British cinema and also found wider fame in the The Great Escape, Colditz and Sapphire & Steel.

Later, he reached a new audience as Dr Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the medical examiner in US TV drama NCIS.

• NCIS and Man from U.N.C.L.E. actor dies at age 90

David Keith McCallum was born on 19 Sep 1933 in the Maryhill area of Glasgow. His father David, a violinist, became leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which necessitated a family move to London in 1936. His mother was an accomplished cellist.

The young McCallum won a scholarship to the University College School in north London and took up the oboe with a view to a classical music career.

In his early roles, David McCallum specialised in playing villains

But he developed a fascination for acting. There were appearances as a child in BBC radio drama and involvement in amateur dramatics. A well-received performance as the doomed prince in Shakespeare's King John helped him make the decision.

"I pleaded, unsuccessfully, with the assassin not to kill me," he later recalled. "It is a real tear-jerker, and the audience applauded wildly at the end. It was in that moment I realised that my home in this world was on a stage."

He did his National Service policing the British Empire with the Royal West African Frontier Force before returning home and attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada).

There were backstage jobs to subsidise an acting career - much to the disappointment of his father, who felt his son was wasting his time.

Enigmatic performance

"Then I did a film called Robbery Under Arms and my name was up in huge letters on the Odeon Leicester Square. He and I walked by, and he said, 'I think you have made the right choice after all.'"

There were minor parts in a number of films including Hell Drivers, where he appeared with his future wife, Jill Ireland, before he finally wowed the critics as Steven Wyatt in 1962 film Billy Budd.

The following year, he appeared as Lieutenant Commander Eric Ashley-Pitt in the The Great Escape which, over the ensuing years, became a staple of bank holiday TV viewing.

The Great Escape brought him to a US audience

In 1964, McCallum was offered a bit part as Illya Kuryakin in a TV pilot called Solo, a spy series created as a vehicle for actor Robert Vaughan. But fan reaction to his performance saw his role greatly enhanced when the series proper launched under a new title, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

His blonde good looks, coupled with his decision to play his character as a man of mystery, made him a huge favourite with the show's female fans.

When McCallum arrived in London in 1966, his airport reception from ranks of screaming girls rivalled that of The Beatles. During U.N.C.L.E.'s run, studio MGM announced he had received more fan mail than any previous performer, including Elvis Presley.

Disappointment

David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. alongside co-stars Leo G Carroll and Robert Vaughn

In an attempt to counter the competition from newer TV spy dramas, the producers put more emphasis on the camp nature of the show in later series, and injected more humour, The results were disastrous and it ended in 1968.

By this time, so had his marriage to Jill Ireland, who left him for the actor Charles Bronson. In 1967, he married Katherine Carpenter.

When not working on the series, McCallum found time to return to music. He worked on four albums blending his oboe with horns, strings and drums in instrumental interpretations of hits of the day.

Thousands of teenage girls greeted McCallum on his arrival at London airport in 1966

McCallum struggled to regain the global fame that U.N.C.L.E. brought him. There were a series of small parts in some unmemorable films but he continued to be much in demand on the small screen.

In 1972, he found himself back in a prisoner of war camp as the hot-headed Flight Lieutenant Simon Carter in BBC drama Colditz. The series proved immensely popular and the only disappointment was that it was not widely shown in the US.

After playing the lead role of Alan Breck Stewart in a TV production of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped, McCallum paired up with Joanna Lumley in the ATV sci-fi drama series Sapphire & Steel.

Immensely popular

In the cryptic plots, the two actors played alien beings who took human form in a bid to maintain the continuity of time.

Despite the often baffling storylines, the series regularly made the top 20 most viewed charts, pulling audiences of more than 11 million. However, a reorganisation of ITV, coupled with rising production costs, saw the series dropped in 1982.

David McCallum and Joanna Lumley in the mysterious Sapphire & Steel

The following year, McCallum reprised his role as Illya Kuryakin in a TV movie reincarnation of U.N.C.L.E. titled The Fifteen-Years-Later Affair. However, hopes that it might act as a pilot for a complete new series were quickly dashed.

His career was boosted by the offer of the role of Dr Donald "Ducky" Mallard in NCIS, a drama based on the work of the team that investigates crimes involving the US Navy.

To play the character, McCallum became a self-taught expert in forensics. He buried himself in books and attended countless medical conferences to expand his knowledge. He got so good that the producers considered hiring him as a consultant as well as an actor.

The series proved immensely popular. After two decades, McCallum had become the longest serving member of the original cast and was deeply fond of his character.

David McCallum and the cast of NCIS celebrated the show's 200th episode in 2012

"I love what he does," he once said. "I like the humour of his mind. I like the fact that he that he rambles on but, more than that, he's given me the opportunity to learn so much."

In a nod to his U.N.C.L.E. role, one scene had a character asking: "What did Ducky look like when he was younger?" Another character replied: "Illya Kuryakin."

McCallum published his first novel in 2016, Once a Crooked Man, a book he described as "the sort of good yarn you can pick up at an airport, read on the plane and give it to a friend at the other end".

McCallum once admitted that he rewatched episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the series that brought him a global audience and mass adulation.

"I had no idea why people had this emotional response to Illya Kuryakin," he said. "When you`re doing it, you don`t realise what it is you`re doing.

"But seeing it 50 years later, I can see how people found him kind of enigmatic and attractive, and just having fun."