RIP David McCallum (aged 90)

Started by vandermolen, September 25, 2023, 02:24:57 PM

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vandermolen

September 25, 2023, 02:24:57 PM Last Edit: September 25, 2023, 02:30:39 PM by vandermolen
https://news.sky.com/story/the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e-star-david-mccallum-dies-aged-90-12970054
Was sorry to hear this news. I always enjoyed his performances and The Man from Uncle was a staple of my childhood TV viewing along with Top of the Pops. He was good in everything I saw him in including The Great Escape and Frankenstein: The True Story.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

JBS

#1
September 25, 2023, 02:50:30 PM
I remember having a Man From Uncle lunchbox in grade school.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

SimonNZ

#2
September 25, 2023, 03:50:44 PM
For me he was Steel from "Saphire And Steel", a show that was far too scary for kids my age, but which we all found unmissable.

Karl Henning

#3
September 25, 2023, 04:03:28 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on September 25, 2023, 02:24:57 PMhttps://news.sky.com/story/the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e-star-david-mccallum-dies-aged-90-12970054
Was sorry to hear this news. I always enjoyed his performances and The Man from Uncle was a staple of my childhood TV viewing along with Top of the Pops. He was good in everything I saw him in including The Great Escape and Frankenstein: The True Story.
Loved him in the classic Outer Limits episode, "The Sixth Finger," and the eerily romantic "Phantom Farmhouse" in Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

San Antone

#4
September 25, 2023, 05:52:01 PM
He almost had a career in music:

David Keith McCallum was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to a father who was first violinist for the London Philharmonic and a mother who was a cellist. Thus he originally pursued a career in music, training on the oboe and studying for a time at the Royal Academy of Music, though he soon left and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After RADA he started performing with repertory theater companies. (source)

vandermolen

#5
September 25, 2023, 08:32:09 PM
Quote from: JBS on September 25, 2023, 02:50:30 PMI remember having a Man From Uncle lunchbox in grade school.

Excellent!
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#6
September 25, 2023, 08:33:51 PM
Quote from: San Antone on September 25, 2023, 05:52:01 PMHe almost had a career in music:

David Keith McCallum was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to a father who was first violinist for the London Philharmonic and a mother who was a cellist. Thus he originally pursued a career in music, training on the oboe and studying for a time at the Royal Academy of Music, though he soon left and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After RADA he started performing with repertory theater companies. (source)
Most interesting! Thanks
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

71 dB

#7
September 26, 2023, 01:15:10 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 25, 2023, 03:50:44 PMFor me he was Steel from "Saphire And Steel", a show that was far too scary for kids my age, but which we all found unmissable.

Yes, "Saphire And Steel" was the scariest TV show of my childhood. I even have the show on DVD. Of course nowadays with adult eyes the show is unintentionally funny rather than scary, but it has its charm and feels very nostalgic to me. Assignments II & III are my favorites.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

vandermolen

#8
September 26, 2023, 01:37:43 AM
Quote from: 71 dB on September 26, 2023, 01:15:10 AMYes, "Saphire And Steel" was the scariest TV show of my childhood. I even have the show on DVD. Of course nowadays with adult eyes the show is unintentionally funny rather than scary, but it has its charm and feels very nostalgic to me. Assignments II & III are my favorites.
He was also in 'The Invisible Man' and was excellent in 'Frankenstein: The True Story'.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

71 dB

#9
September 26, 2023, 04:45:13 AM Last Edit: September 26, 2023, 04:58:04 AM by 71 dB
Quote from: vandermolen on September 26, 2023, 01:37:43 AMHe was also in 'The Invisible Man' and was excellent in 'Frankenstein: The True Story'.

I haven't seen those. I was 4-5 years old when The Invisible Man came out in the US and I don't know if it has ever been shown on TV in Finland. Tons of TV show haven't been*. The show is available Blu-ray, but I read the picture quality is really bad. I don't pay for shit.

* For example the classic Doctor Who was never shown in Finland. I didn't know anything about it (I only knew the new Doctor Who that they showed on Finnish TV which I didn't care about because it lacks everything that makes the classic show so lovable, cosy and charming.) until I accidently discovered it on sci-fi pay tv I happened to subscribe to at that time (about 15 years ago) and the show became one of my top favourite TV shows ever (I collected all the DVDs meaning it was quite an expensive discovery!).
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

vandermolen

#10
September 26, 2023, 11:42:56 AM Last Edit: September 26, 2023, 11:45:45 AM by vandermolen
Quote from: 71 dB on September 26, 2023, 04:45:13 AMI haven't seen those. I was 4-5 years old when The Invisible Man came out in the US and I don't know if it has ever been shown on TV in Finland. Tons of TV show haven't been*. The show is available Blu-ray, but I read the picture quality is really bad. I don't pay for shit.

* For example the classic Doctor Who was never shown in Finland. I didn't know anything about it (I only knew the new Doctor Who that they showed on Finnish TV which I didn't care about because it lacks everything that makes the classic show so lovable, cosy and charming.) until I accidently discovered it on sci-fi pay tv I happened to subscribe to at that time (about 15 years ago) and the show became one of my top favourite TV shows ever (I collected all the DVDs meaning it was quite an expensive discovery!).
I'm old enough to have grown up with the original 'Dr Who', William Hartnell. You might enjoy a rather moving recent drama about him called 'An Adventure in Space and Time' (it's on DVD).
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#11
September 26, 2023, 12:26:17 PM
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

geralmar

#12
October 04, 2023, 10:52:32 AM
McCallum is memorable as the perhaps back from the dead inventor of a time machine who encounters two murderesses of a sadistic blackmailer in "The Forms of Things Unknown" episode of The Outer Limits (1964). Bizarre and unsettling.

Scion7

#13
October 09, 2023, 05:55:00 AM
I missed his passing. I remember seeing him first in the best episode that The Outer Limits ever produced, The Sixth Finger.  And he was critically important to Frankenstein: The True Story.  Was never a super-fan of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., but many of his other films were very good including the war movies, as was his appearance in Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Pohjolas Daughter

#14
October 09, 2023, 05:02:31 PM
I confess that I didn't know much about him.  I remember watching some episodes of "Man from UNCLE" way back when.  Love "The Great Escape".  Next time that it's on, I'll try and focus more on his character.  Quickly reading Wiki, I was intrigued with his musical knowledge and talents!

PD

vandermolen

#15
October 10, 2023, 06:48:07 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on October 09, 2023, 05:02:31 PMI confess that I didn't know much about him.  I remember watching some episodes of "Man from UNCLE" way back when.  Love "The Great Escape".  Next time that it's on, I'll try and focus more on his character.  Quickly reading Wiki, I was intrigued with his musical knowledge and talents!

PD


His parents were both musicians I think. His father was the leader of one of the major London orchestras.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#16
October 10, 2023, 06:49:14 AM
Quote from: Scion7 on October 09, 2023, 05:55:00 AMI missed his passing. I remember seeing him first in the best episode that The Outer Limits ever produced, The Sixth Finger.  And he was critically important to Frankenstein: The True Story.  Was never a super-fan of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., but many of his other films were very good including the war movies, as was his appearance in Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
Frankenstein: The True Story was very good indeed.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#17
October 10, 2023, 06:50:32 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on October 09, 2023, 05:02:31 PMI confess that I didn't know much about him.  I remember watching some episodes of "Man from UNCLE" way back when.  Love "The Great Escape".  Next time that it's on, I'll try and focus more on his character.  Quickly reading Wiki, I was intrigued with his musical knowledge and talents!

PD


'Eric Ashley-Pitt' (Dispersal) in the Great Escape. He dies heroically.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Herman

#18
October 11, 2023, 11:38:55 AM
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had this uniquely irritating earworm theme music, with those tiny bongos. As I remember the show there was an endless series of suspicious looking girls who took off some clothes to reveal their slip dress. I use the word 'girl' advisedly. That's what unmarried women were called back then,

Karl Henning

#19
October 11, 2023, 11:46:34 AM
Quote from: Herman on October 11, 2023, 11:38:55 AMThe Man From U.N.C.L.E. had this uniquely irritating earworm theme music, with those tiny bongos.
Without at all doubting you, I don't believe I remember the theme. No doubt I can find it on YouTube.

Tangentially, I've been watching The Dick van Dyke Show (in the middle of season 2 now) and I just watched the episode on which McCallum's co-star Robt Vaughn was the guest.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot
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