Robert Francis Vaughn (November 22, 1932 – November 11, 2016) was an American actor and political activist, whose career in film, television and theater spanned nearly six decades and who was best known for his role as the secret agent Napoleon Solo on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–68). He was a Primetime Emmy Award winner, and was nominated for the Academy Awards, the BAFTA Award, two Laurel Awards, and four times for the Golden Globe Award. Vaughn also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Vaughn had his breakthrough role as disabled, drunken war veteran Chester A. Gwynn in The Young Philadelphians, earning him a 1960 Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He subsequently appeared in scores of films, notably as gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven (1960), Walter Chalmers in Bullitt, Major Paul Krueger in The Bridge at Remagen (1969), the voice of Proteus IV in Demon Seed (1977) and Ross Webster in Superman III (1983).
To television audiences, in addition to his role as Solo, Vaughn was known for his roles as private detective Harry Rule on The Protectors (1972–74), Morgan Wendell in the miniseries Centennial (1978–79), and Albert Stroller on the BBC Television drama Hustle (2004–12). He won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of the White House Chief of Staff in the miniseries . He also appeared in the British soap opera Coronation Street as Milton Fanshaw from January until February 2012.
Aside from his acting career, Vaughn was active in Democratic Party politics. He was chair of the California Democratic State Central Committee speakers bureau during the 1960s, and publicly campaigned against the Vietnam War as a member of the peace group Another Mother for Peace. A PhD in communications, his 1970 doctoral thesis "The Influence of the House Committee on Un-American Activities on the American Theater 1938–58" is considered "the most complete and intelligent treatment of the virulent practice of blacklisting now available."
Discussing his childhood in a 1965 New York Sunday News interview, Vaughn said “I was a complete wreck as a child, emotionally unstable, excessively prideful”
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Robert Vaughn, Who Starred as Napoleon Solo in ‘Man From U.N.C.L.E.,’ Dies at 83. The New York Times via Internet Archive. Retrieved May 14, 2021. and that he often felt miserable. “I cried all the time and I was always getting beat up”.
After high school, he enrolled in the University of Minnesota as a journalism major. However, he dropped out after a year and moved to Los Angeles with his mother.
He studied theater arts at Los Angeles City College in 1956 and transferred to Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences earning a master's degree in theater in 1960.
In 1972, he published his dissertation as a book titled Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting. Kirkus Reviews lists the book as "the most complete and intelligent treatment of the virulent practice of blacklisting now available". Still in print, the book is regularly assigned to law students.
Vaughn's mother assisted him in being cast on radio shows in the Chicago area. He debuted on radio playing the part of Billy on Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy broadcast on WBBM (AM) radio.
In 1950 Vaughn worked as a page at Minneapolis' WCCO (AM). "My job was a kind of glorified page boy position, but I was allowed to wear civvies rather than the silly uniforms often sported by studio guides and messengers in those days".
His first film appearance was as an extra in The Ten Commandments (1956), playing a golden calf idolator. Vaughn is also visible during a chariot scene behind Yul Brynner.
Vaughn's first credited movie role was the Western fiction Hell's Crossroads (1957), in which he played Bob Ford, the murderer of outlaw Jesse James. Seen by Burt Lancaster in Calder Willingham's play End as a Man, Vaughn was signed with Lancaster's film company and was to have played the Steve Dallas role in Sweet Smell of Success. Vaughn appeared as Stan Gray in the episode "The Twisted Road" of the western syndicated series Frontier Doctor.
Vaughn played in at least one episode of The Rifleman. He played Dan, a West Point dropout who was appointed temporary Marshall of North Fork.
In the film, Vaughn portrayed alcoholic veteran Chet Gwynn who lost his arm in the Korean War and was falsely accused of murder. His acting in the film earned Vaughn nominations for both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.
Vaughn recalled the morning in January when he arrived in Sturges’ office for his audition, "...an ax was hanging over every movie project in Hollywood. Unless the casting for a picture was completed by noon on a particular Friday, production couldn’t begin". Telling Vaughn he wanted to cast him based on his performance in The Young Philadelphians, Sturges said, "We don’t have a script, just Kurosawa’s picture to work from. You’ll have to go on faith. But we’ll be filming in Cuernavaca. Never been there? You’ll love it — it’s the 'Palm Springs of Mexico' ". Vaughn told Sturges, “I'm in”. Saying, "Good decision, young man", Sturges asked, "And do you know any other good young actors? I’ve got four other slots to fill". Vaughn suggested James Coburn, a friend and former classmate. Sturges hired Coburn.
Vaughn's portrayal of hired gunfighter Lee included wearing black gloves throughout the film, signifying his reluctance to "get his hands dirty" even while continuing to kill for hire.
Vaughn's acting showed Lee's internal struggle with cowardice. Having lost his nerve, he could not fight until he finally summoned the internal courage to face certain death while freeing hostages.
When offered the chance to run, Vaughn's Lee is told, "Go ahead, Lee, you don’t owe anything to anybody". His answer? "Except to myself".
Vaughn died in 2016, the last of The Magnificent Seven actors.
From 1964 to 1968, Vaughn played Solo with Scottish co-star David McCallum playing his fellow agent, Illya Kuryakin. This production spawned a spinoff show, large amounts of merchandising, overseas theatrical movies of re-edited episodes, and a sequel, Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E..
Explaining the two The Man from U.N.C.L.E. characters' appeal, Vaughn said, “Girls age 9 to 12 liked David McCallum because he was so sweet, but the old ladies and the 13- to 16-year-olds liked me because I was so detached”.
At the height of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. show's popularity, Vaughn reported receiving 70,000 fan letters a month. "I was bombarded with house and apartment keys labeled with the addresses of the adoring girls who lived behind those doors," he wrote in his 2008 memoir, A Fortunate Life. "At the end of our first season, I had to put up an electric fence around my house to keep out the girls. I even tried using recorded animal noises to fend off my visitors, but I could never operate the sound system."
Vaughn said the success of the show boosted his career. "Not only was it a great deal of fun, it changed me from being a working actor to a negotiating actor. After U.N.C.L.E., I never accepted the first offer: if I wanted more money, I asked for it. A better dressing room? Four first-class tickets instead of two? I’d ask for them, and I’d often get them."
In 1966, during the initial The Man from U.N.C.L.E. broadcast run, Vaughn appeared as a bachelor on the premiere episode of the nighttime version of The Dating Game which aired on October 6, 1966. Karen Carlson, the 1964 Miss America pageant first runner-up, chose Vaughn as her date, which included a trip to London, England.
After The Man from U.N.C.L.E was canceled in 1968, Vaughn continued to appear on television and in films.
In 2012 Vaughn appeared for three weeks in the British soap opera Coronation Street as wealthy American Milton Fanshaw.
When show producer Simon Crawford Collins met Vaughn, he recognized "straight away that he could bring a whole new dimension to the part of Albert". He later called Vaughn, offering him the role. Vaughn said during the call he was "told to get on a plane an hour after I got the phone call and start shooting the following day."
In 2006, Vaughn said "I imagined that Napoleon Solo had retired from U.N.C.L.E., whatever U.N.C.L.E. was. What could he do now to use his talents and to supplement his government pension? I imagined Stroller as Napoleon Solo, The Later Years".
Vaughn portrayed Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, in addition to Woodrow Wilson (in the 1979 television mini-series Backstairs at the White House). He additionally played Roosevelt in the 1982 HBO television movie FDR: That Man in the White House. In 1983–1984, he appeared as industrialist Harlan Adams in the short-lived series Emerald Point N.A.S., replacing Patrick O'Neal. In the mid-1990s, he made several cameo appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as an audience member who berates the host and his guests beginning with "you people make me sick."
After a string of guest roles on series such as Law & Order (in which he had a recurring role during season eight as Carl Anderton, a wealthy businessman who vows revenge on the NYC DA's office and longtime friend Adam Schiff for sending his grandson to juvenile correction for murdering his stepsister). In September 2006, he guest-starred on an episode of .
Vaughn also appeared as himself narrating and being a character in a radio play broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2007 about making the film The Bridge at Remagen in Prague, during the Russian invasion of 1968.
In 1968, the company opened a branch office in Great Britain. In the 1970s Ferdporqui Productions provided production management on The Protectors which starred Vaughn.
Vaughn was also an infomercial pitchman from 1985 through 1990 for the Helsinki Formula, a claimed baldness cure. In 1994 the Federal Trade Commission sued, blocking the product's bogus claims, but $100 million of the product had already been sold.
In 1993, Vaughn told The Los Angeles Times he had no problem promoting the Helsinki Formula "cure". He said, “That was about the most profitable thing I’ve ever done in my life. Every call that came in on the 800 number, I got a piece of that”.
The Seinfeld TV show mentioned Vaughn's Helsinki Formula ad during the show's second season May 2, 1991, episode:
Vaughn married actress Linda Staab in 1974. They had appeared together in a 1973 episode of The Protectors, called "It Could Be Practically Anywhere on the Island". They adopted two children, Cassidy (born 1976) and Caitlin (born 1981). They resided in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
For many years, it was believed Vaughn was the biological father of English film director and producer Matthew Vaughn, born when the actor was in a relationship with early 1970s socialite Kathy Ceaton. However, a paternity investigation identified the father as George de Vere Drummond, an English aristocrat and godson of King George VI. Early in Matthew's life, when all believed Vaughn was the father, he asked for "his" child's surname to be Vaughn, which Matthew continues to use professionally, still seeing Vaughn as his social father, even if not biologically.
His second book, A Fortunate Life, was an autobiography published in 2008 in which Vaughn said of his life, "With a modest amount of looks and talent and more than a modicum of serendipity, I've managed to stretch my 15 minutes of fame into more than half a century of good fortune". "The breaks all fell my way".
Vaughn was the first popular American actor to take a public stand against the Vietnam War and was active in the peace group Another Mother for Peace. Vaughn debated with William F. Buckley Jr. on his program Firing Line on the Vietnam War. With Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner, he was a founder of Dissenting Democrats. Early in the 1968 presidential election, they supported the candidacy of Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy, who was running for president as an alternative to Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had supported President Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam.
Vaughn was reported to have political ambitions of his own, but in a 1973 interview, he denied having had any political aspirations. In a conversation with historian Jack Sanders, he stated that after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, "I lost heart for the battle".
Doctoral thesis published as a book
Military service
Acting career
Early encouragement
Helped by Paul Newman
The Magnificent Seven
Bullitt
Superman III
Television career
Debut
Gunsmoke
The Boston Terrier
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Lieutenant
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Protectors
Daytime television
The Magnificent Seven
Hustle
Other appearances
Production company
Other investments
Advertising pitch man
Personal life
Recordings
Books
Political views
Death
Accolades
Theater
1955 The Pilgrimage Judas Iscariot Pilgrimage Theater, Hollywood Unknown Pilgrimage Theater is now known as the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre."Pilgrimage Play Returns to Stage", Los Angeles Times, August 9, 1955. 1979 The Real Inspector Hound Moon United States Unknown 1985 Inherit The Wind Henry Drummond Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, NJ March 1985 1989 Love Letters Andrew Makepiece Ladd III Edison Theatre October 31, 1989 – January 21, 1990 2013 Twelve Angry Men Juror 9
Filmography
Film
1956 The Ten Commandments Spearman / Hebrew at Golden Calf 1957 Hell's Crossroads Bob Ford Western film directed by Franklin Adreon. No Time to Be Young Buddy Root Film noir drama film directed by David Lowell Rich. 1958 Teenage Cave Man The Symbol Maker's Teenage Son Independent film black-and-white Adventure film–science fiction film produced and directed by Roger Corman. Unwed Mother Don Bigelow Drama film directed by Walter Doniger. 1959 Good Day for a Hanging Eddie Campbell Western film directed by Nathan H. Juran. The Young Philadelphians Chester A. Gwynn 1960 The Magnificent Seven Lee Western film directed by John Sturges. 1961 The Big Show Klaus Everard 1963 The Caretakers Jim Melford 1964 To Trap a Spy Napoleon Solo Feature length film of the Pilot episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. directed by Don Medford. 1965 The Spy with My Face Spy-fi spy film based on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and directed by John Newland. 1966 One Spy Too Many Feature-length film of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.s two–part season two premiere episode "Alexander the Greater Affair" screenplay by Dean Hargrove and directed by Joseph Sargent. The Glass Bottom Boat One of Our Spies is Missing 1967 The Spy in the Green Hat Feature-length film of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.s third season two–part episode "The Concrete Overcoat Affair" directed by Joseph Sargent and written by Peter Allan Fields with the story by David Victor. The Venetian Affair Bill Fenner The Karate Killers Napoleon Solo Feature-length film of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.s third season two–part episode "The Five Daughters Affair" directed by Barry Shear and written by Norman Hudis with the story by Boris Ingster. 1968 The Helicopter Spies Feature-length film of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.s fourth season two–part episode "The Prince of Darkness Affair" directed by Boris Sagal and written by Dean Hargrove. How to Steal the World Feature-length film of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.s two–part series finale episodes "The Seven Wonders of the World Affair" directed by Sutton Roley and written by Norman Hudis. Bullitt Walter Chalmers Drama–thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni. 1969 If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium Antonio, Photographer DeLuxe Color romantic comedy film directed by Mel Stuart. The Bridge at Remagen Major Paul Kreuger 1970 Julius Caesar Servilius Casca British independent Film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, directed by Stuart Burge and written by Robert Furnival. The Mind of Mr. Soames Dr. Michael Bergen 1971 The Statue Ray Whiteley Clay Pigeon Neilson Action film directed by Lane Slate and Tom Stern. 1974 The Man from Independence Harry S Truman Biographical–drama film directed by Jack Smight The Towering Inferno Senator Parker Action–drama disaster film directed by John Guillermin. 1975 Stuart Chase 1976 Atraco en la jungla Tony 1977 Demon Seed Proteus IV Starship Invasions Professor Allan Duncan 1978 The Lucifer Complex Glen Manning Science fiction film directed by Kenneth Hartford & David L. Hewitt and written by Hewitt & Dale Skillicorn. Brass Target Colonel Donald Rogers Hawaii Five-O Rolande Episode: "The Spirit is Willie" 1979 Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff Dr. Neal Drama film directed by Marvin J. Chomsky. 1980 Cuba Crossing Hud Virus Senator Barkley Hangar 18 Gordon Cain Action science fiction film directed by James L. Conway and written by Ken Pettus with the story by Thomas C. Chapman and Conway. Battle Beyond the Stars Gelt Science fiction–adventure film directed by Jimmy T. Murakami. 1981 S.O.B. David Blackman Comedy film written and directed by Blake Edwards. 1983 Superman III Ross Webster British superhero film directed by Richard Lester and based on the DC Comics character Superman. Great Transport Dr. Emil Kovac 1986 Black Moon Rising Ed Ryland Action film directed by Harley Cokeliss and written by John Carpenter. The Delta Force General Woodbridge 1987 Hour of the Assassin Sam Merrick They Call Me Renegade Lawson Killing Birds Dr. Fred Brown 1988 Skeleton Coast Major Schneider Captive Rage Eduard Delacorte Another Way: D-Kikan Joho Mr. D Japanese film 1989 The Emissary Ambassador Ed MacKay That's Adequate Adolf Hitler Colonel Masters River of Death Dr. Wolfgang Manteuffel Transylvania Twist Lord Byron Orlock 1990 Buried Alive Gary Julian Nobody's Perfect Dr. Duncan 1991 Going Under Wedgewood Also known as Dive! 1992 Blind Vision Mr. X 1994 Dust to Dust Mayor Sampson Moses 1995 Witch Academy The Devil 1996 Joe's Apartment Senator Dougherty Milk & Money Uncle Andre 1997 Menno's Mind Senator Zachary Powell Motel Blue Chief MacIntyre Vulcan Vince Baxter An American Affair Professor Michaels 1998 Visions Agent Silvestri McCinsey's Island Walter Denkins The Sender Ron Fairfax BASEketball Baxter Cain Vaughn's 100th feature film 2001 Pootie Tang Dick Lecter 2002 Cottonmouth Judge Mancini 2003 Happy Hour Tulley Sr. Doug McPlug: The Life and Times Hoodlum & Son Benny 'The Bomb' Palladino 2004 Scene Stealers Dr. Gadsden Braden 2BPerfectlyHonest Nick Gang Warz Chief Hannigan 2012 Excuse Me for Living Jacob The Magnificent Eleven American Bob 2014 A Cry from Within Doc Williams 2016 The American Side Silver-Haired Man Gold Star Carmine (final film role)
Television
Sources
External links
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