page_title: Napoleon Solo
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Napoleon Solo / Background
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin from the television program The Man from U.N.C.L.E.".
context_page_description: Napoleon Solo is a fictional character from the 1960s TV spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The series format was notable for pairing the American Solo, played by Robert Vaughn, and the Russian Illya Kuryakin, played by David McCallum, as two spies who work together for an international espionage organisation at the height of the Cold War.
context_section_description: Solo possesses a charm, sophistication, efficiency, and weakness for beautiful women comparable to James Bond's. But Solo is considerably less intense and also less brutal than the British Secret Service agent, and he possesses a laid-back ease that recalls the young Cary Grant. The show's original concept had Solo as a Canadian; but he is consistently American in the show.
  Solo is Number One in Section Two (Operations and Enforcement) at U.N.C.L.E. (In the first season he wore a badge with the Roman numeral II designating him as head of Section Two. During the switch to color in the second season, new badges were created and Robert Vaughn, mistaking the earlier II for an eleven, chose the wrong badge number for Solo.) It was originally intended that Solo would be the primary focus of the series, however the unexpected popularity of the Russian agent, Illya Kuryakin, played by David McCallum, saw McCallum elevated to co-star status. Most of the episodes devote equal screen time to Kuryakin and Solo, and much of the success of the program was based on the chemistry between McCallum and Vaughn.
caption: Napoleon Solo (left) and his partner Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum)
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