Robert Vaughn, who starred as Napoleon Solo on the popular ’60s TV spy drama, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., died Friday (November 11). Vaughn was 83 and is said to have died from leukemia at his home in Ridgefield, CT.
From September 1964 until its demise in January 1968, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. aired on NBC with Vaughn and co-star David McCallum as debonaire secret agents for the New York-based top secret law enforcement agency, U.N.C.L.E. (The title was an an acronym for the fictional United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.) Their adversary was THRUSH, though that organization’s full details were never revealed.
Vaughn’s acting career had taken off in 1960 when he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1959 film The Young Philadelphians. In 1960, he co-starred in the Western film The Magnificent Seven, alongside fellow gunslingers played by, among others, Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn.
Watch this preview of the series and you’ll see where the spy spoof series Get Smart got many of its ideas from…
Vaughn was born on November 22, 1932 in New York City. After a year at the University of Minnesota, he moved to Los Angeles, where he would earn a Masters degree in theater. His breakthrough was in The Young Philadelphians, which was quickly followed by The Magnificent Seven.
Here’s a great scene with Brynner, McQueen, Coburn, Vaughn and Horst Buchholz…
Vaughn also had prominent roles in the film Bullitt, the TV series Washington: Behind Closed Doors (for which he won an Emmy), The A-Team and the BBC series Hustle.
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