ROBERT VAUGHN

(22 November 1932 - 11 November 2016)

American actor Robert Vaughn initially did stage work but soon entered television and saw most of his career on the box. Having appeared in many of the popular series – As the World Turns, Gunsmoke, Dragnet, etc – he finally got his own show, The Lieutenant in 1963 and then The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1964 which made his name forever. He carried a spear in his first film, The Ten Commandments (1956), and then made a few B-pictures including Roger Corman’s Teenage Cave Man (1958). His first major role was in The Young Philadelphians (1959) earning him an Oscar nomination and it was followed by The Magnificent Seven (1960). After that it was a mixture of TV and movies, with just a few outstanding films such as Borderlines, Bullitt, Julius Caesar, , The Mind of Mr Soames, The Towering Inferno, Demon Seed, S.O.B., Superman III etc. Vaughn turned up in TV series of The A Team and The Magnificent Seven (playing a judge) and he won an Emmy for Washington Behind Closed Doors (1977). In Britain he made the TV series The Protectors and later on Hustle (from 2004) saw him as the head of a gang of con artists. Then he did three months on Coronation Street as a suspect businessman. His final film was Victoria Negri’s Gold Star (2016).

MICHAEL DARVELL