An NCIS Star Was MGM Studios' Most Popular Actor, Thanks To A Hit '60s Spy Series

For the last two decades of his life, David McCallum was a beloved cast member of the smash CBS series "NCIS." However, McCallum's first brush with fame decades earlier was an iconic show that made him a cultural sensation.

McCallum's big break began in 1964 with the debut of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," a spy series that cast the Scottish actor as Russian secret agent Illya Kuryakin. Illya was initially only a supporting player to the American spy on the show, Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo. But before long, McCallum was promoted to co-lead and regularly shared on-screen adventures with Vaughn.

Both men became audience favorites as the show grew in popularity, but the fandom surrounding McCallum was more intense.

"David's fans were much younger than mine," Vaughn told Radio Times in 2015. "He was referred to as the Blond Beatle, so his fans were mainly teenagers. Mine were in their 20s!"

According to Radio Times, MGM Studios received more fan mail for McCallum than any other actor in its history to that point. That led to some wild scenes when McCallum appeared in public.

"I was rescued from Central Park by mounted police once," said McCallum in an interview with The Scotsman. "When I went to Macy's department store, the fans did $25,000 worth of damage and they had to close Herald Square to get me out. That's pretty classic, but you just have to deal with it."

"The Man From U.N.C.L.E." came to an end in 1968 after four seasons, and David McCallum sounded happy that the fan response dimmed over time.

"And then whoever was next came along, and you get dropped overnight, which is a relief," McCallum told The Scotsman.

The actor worked steadily over the decades until he was cast as medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in 2003 for a two-part episode of "JAG" that served as a backdoor pilot for "NCIS." When McCallum passed away in 2023, he had spent 20 seasons on the show and was the only remaining original cast member at that point.

Early in "NCIS," one of the characters jokingly said that Ducky looked like Illya Kuryakin when he was younger. When "NCIS" put together a tribute episode to McCallum in 2024, the series made one last nod to "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." when it revealed that Ducky had a dog named Solo.

That episode also gave closure to Ducky by letting the rest of the characters complete his final case while sharing memories and clips from his two decades with the franchise.