David McCallum

David McCallum (born "David Keith McCallum Jr", September 19, 1933- September 25, 2023) was a Scottish actor and musician, who played medical examiner Dr. Donald Mallard on NCIS.
== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
McCallum was born 19 September 1933, in Maryhill, Glasgow, the second of two sons of orchestral violinist David McCallum Sr. and Dorothy (née Dorman), a cellist. When he was three, his family moved to London for his father to play as the leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Early in the Second World War, he was evacuated back to Scotland, where he lived with his mother at Gartocharn by Loch Lomond.
McCallum won a scholarship to University College School, a boys' independent school in Hampstead, London, where, encouraged by his parents to prepare for a career in music, he played the oboe. In 1946 he began doing boy voices for the BBC radio repertory company. Also involved in local amateur drama, at age 17, he appeared as Oberon in an open-air production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Play and Pageant Union. He left school at age 18 and was conscripted for National Service. He joined the British Army's 3rd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, which was seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force. In March 1954 he was promoted to lieutenant. After leaving the army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (also in London), where Joan Collins was a classmate.
=== Career ===
Beginning his career in Britain in 1947, he played bit parts in various films, with his first role coming in Whom the Gods Love, Die Young. In 1958, he appeared in A Night to Remember, an adaptation of the RMS Titantic disaster. In 1963, he played Lt. Commander Eric Ashley-Pitt in John Sturges's critically acclaimed World War II film The Great Escape. Also in 1963 he appeared in an episode of the original SciFi series "The Outer Limits" titled "The Sixth Finger".
After The Great Escape, McCallum was cast as Russian secret agent Illya Kuryakin on NBC's TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. The series ran for three and a half seasons, and his role earned him two Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination.
Although he never earned much popular success after U.N.C.L.E., he did have a steady stream of work. He appeared on British series such as Colditz, Sapphire & Steel, and a short-lived U.S. remake of The Invisible Man. In 1983, he played Illya Kuryakin again in the TV movie The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair.
In 2003, McCallum appeared in two episodes of "JAG", playing Donald Mallard, NCIS's medical examiner. 
He continued the role as a regular on NCIS, and Legend (Part 2) (episode), the backdoor pilot to NCIS's spin-off series, NCIS: Los Angeles has been the only episode McCallum hasn't appeared in so far.
In late April 2012, it was announced that McCallum had reached an agreement on a two-year contract extension with CBS-TV. The move meant that he would remain an NCIS regular past his eightieth birthday. In May 2014 he signed another two-year contract. He has since signed extensions in 2016, beginning a limited schedule in 2017 and renewing the same for seasons 15, 16 & 17 - each one separately.
In addition to appearing on NCIS, McCallum also made a guest appearance on the NCIS spin-off series, "NCIS: New Orleans".
===Music===
In the 1960s, McCallum recorded four albums for Capitol Records with music producer David Axelrod: Music...A Part of Me (Capitol ST 2432, 1966), Music...A Bit More of Me (Capitol ST 2498, 1966), Music...It's Happening Now! (Capitol ST 2651, 1967), and McCallum (Capitol ST 2748, 1968). The best known of his pieces today is "The Edge", which was sampled by Dr. Dre as the intro and riff to the track "The Next Episode", "M.I.A" by Missin' Linx, "No Regrets" by Masta Ace, and "Actions" by John Legend. McCallum's version of "The Edge" appears on the soundtrack to the 2017 film Baby Driver.
McCallum did not sing on these records, as many television stars of the 1960s did when offered recording contracts. As a classically trained musician, he conceived a blend of oboe, English horn and strings with guitar and drums, and presented instrumental interpretations of hits of the day. The official arranger on the albums was H. B. Barnum. However, McCallum conducted, and contributed several original compositions of his own, over the course of four LPs. The first two, Music...A Part of Me and Music...A Bit More of Me, have been issued together on CD on the Zonophone label. On Open Channel D, McCallum did sing on the first four tracks, "Communication", "House on Breckenridge Lane", "In the Garden, Under the Tree" (the theme song from the film Three Bites of the Apple) and "My Carousel". The music tracks are the same as the Zonophone CD. This CD was released on the Rev-Ola label. The single release of "Communication" reached No. 32 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1966.
In the Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Discotheque Affair", McCallum plays the double bass as part of a band in a night club. He also played guitar and sang his own composition, "Trouble," with Nancy Sinatra on "The Take Me to Your Leader Affair," and played several instruments in "The Off-Broadway Affair".
In the 1970s, McCallum also recorded three H. P. Lovecraft tales for Caedmon Records, an imprint of August Derleth's Arkham House publishing venture: "The Rats in the Walls" (TC 1347, 1973); "The Dunwich Horror" ("slightly abridged"; TC 1467, 1976); and "The Haunter of the Dark" (TC 1617, 1979).
===Fiction===
In 2016, McCallum published a crime novel entitled Once a Crooked Man. The narrative is set in New York and London and centres on a young actor who tries to foil a murder. McCallum has stated that a second novel is in progress.
==Personal life==
McCallum is the son of acclaimed violinist David McCallum, Sr., and his brother Iain is a noted author.
From 1957 to 1967, McCallum was married to actress Jill Ireland, who made a few guest appearances on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. They had three sons: Paul, Jason, and Val. Jason died in 1989 of an accidental drug overdose. McCallum and Ireland divorced after McCallum introduced Ireland to Charles Bronson on the set of The Great Escape.
Since 1967, McCallum has been married to Katherine Carpenter. They have a son and a daughter, and live in New York. While filming NCIS, McCallum also lives part-time in California.
McCallum died on September 25, 2023, one week after his 90th birthday.
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