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'60s star gets fame again on NCIS
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Published: September 28, 2009
David McCallum has heard this story before. But ever the gentleman, he listens intently as a female baby boomer relates how he made her preteenage heart skip more than a few beats as the blond, blue-eyed, Russian-born secret agent Illya Kuryakin on NBC's 1964-68 espionage series The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Kuryakin and equally sexy American spy Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) worked for a secret government agency called the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, whose nemesis was the evil THRUSH -- the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity.
The youthful-looking and charming actor, who turned 76 on Saturday, recalls that U.N.C.L.E-mania was so great that one day three mounted policemen had to escort him out of New York's Central Park.
"I just went for a walk," says McCallum. "I was staying at the Plaza (Hotel) for the weekend and literally had to be hoisted onto a police horse and taken out. "
The series allowed McCallum to meet politicians, sports figure and other celebrities. "It allowed me to meet Sen. Ted Kennedy. I went out to the compound simply because I was in the show. We went sailing with him."
The long-running CBS action series NCIS, now in its seventh season on Tuesdays, has brought McCallum even more fame.
McCallum plays Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the chief medical examiner who has seen it all. Ducky frequently uses his psychological training to help the team understand clues left by the killers. The bespectacled, bow-tie-wearing Ducky also has a warm, often sarcastic friendship with the NCIS team's head special agent, Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon).
Not only is NCIS consistently in the top 10 Nielsen ratings each week, repeats air on USA, ION and Sleuth.
McCallum lives in New York with his wife of 42 years, former model-interior decorator Katherine Carpenter. While NCIS is in production, he stays in a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica and drives a secondhand car.
He describes NCIS as "the little engine that could" despite his belief that CBS hasn't done much to promote the show.
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