page_title: Robert Vaughn
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Vaughn / Career
caption_attribution_description: Photo of young Kurt Russell and Robert Vaughn from the television program The Man From U.N.C.L.E..
context_page_description: Robert Francis Vaughn was an American actor noted for his stage, film and television work. His television roles include suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s series The Protectors; Morgan Wendell in the 1978–79 mini series Centennial; formidable General Hunt Stockwell in the fifth season of the 1980s series The A-Team; and grifter and card sharp Albert Stroller in the British television drama series Hustle, for all but one of its 48 episodes. He also appeared in the British soap opera Coronation Street as Milton Fanshaw, a love interest for Sylvia Goodwin between January and February 2012.
  In film, he portrayed quiet, skittish gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven, Major Paul Krueger in The Bridge at Remagen, the voice of Proteus IV, the computer villain of Demon Seed, Walter Chalmers in Bullitt, Ross Webster in Superman III, General Woodbridge in The Delta Force, and war veteran Chester A. Gwynn in The Young Philadelphians, which earned him a 1959 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
context_section_description: Vaughn made his television debut on the November 21, 1955, "Black Friday" episode of the American television series Medic, the first of more than two hundred episodic roles through mid-2000. His first film appearance was as an uncredited extra in The Ten Commandments (1956), playing a golden calf idolater also visible in a scene in a chariot behind that of Yul Brynner.  He also made a guest appearance opposite Barbara Eden in a Romeo-Juliet role, in the Gunsmoke episode "Romeo", which turned out okay for the bride and groom.
  Vaughn's first credited movie role came the following year in the Western 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's first notable appearance was in The Young Philadelphians (1959), receiving a nomination for both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. He next appeared as gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven (1960), a role he essentially reprised 20 years later in Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), both films adapted from filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese samurai epic, Seven Samurai. Vaughn was the last surviving member of those who portrayed The Magnificent Seven. He played a different role, Judge Oren Travis, on the 1998-2000 syndicated television series The Magnificent Seven.
  In the 1963-64 season, Vaughn appeared in The Lieutenant as Captain Raymond Rambridge alongside Gary Lockwood, a Marine second lieutenant at Camp Pendleton. His dissatisfaction with the somewhat diminished aspect of the character led him to request an expanded role. During the conference, his name came up in a telephone call and he ended up being offered a series of his own — as Napoleon Solo, title character in a series originally to be called Solo, but which became The Man from U.N.C.L.E. after the pilot was reshot with Leo G. Carroll in the role of Solo's boss. This was the role which would make Vaughn a household name even behind the Iron Curtain. Vaughn had guest-starred on Lockwood's series Follow the Sun. In 1963 he also appeared in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show as Jim Darling, a successful businessman and an old flame of Laura Petrie in the episode "It's A Shame She Married Me".
  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, The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen-Years-Later Affair. After 
  the series ended, Vaughn landed a major film role playing Walter Chalmers, a U.S. Senator in the film Bullitt starring Steve McQueen; he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role.
  In 1966, Vaughn appeared as a bachelor on the nighttime premiere of The Dating Game. He was picked for the date, which was a trip to London. After The Man from U.N.C.L.E  was cancelled in 1968, Vaughn continued to appear on television and in mostly B movies. He starred in two seasons of the British detective series The Protectors in the early 1970s. He also appeared in two episodes of Columbo during the mid-1970s, "Troubled Waters" (1975) and "Last Salute to the Commodore" (1976). The latter episode is one of the few in the series where the identity of the murderer is not known until the end. Vaughn won an Emmy for his portrayal of Frank Flaherty in Washington: Behind Closed Doors (ABC, 1977) and during the 1980s starred with friend George Peppard in the final season of The A-Team. Vaughn played Morgan Wendell, opponent to Paul Garrett played by David Janssen in the 1978–79 miniseries Centennial.
  Vaughn portrayed Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, in addition to
caption: Vaughn with Kurt Russell in a 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
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