Robert Vaughn

Robert Francis Vaughn (born November 22, 1932) is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work, and best known as suave spy Napoleon Solo in the popular 1960s TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., although he continues to be a popular television actor into the 21st century.

Biography

Vaughn was born in New York City to Roman Catholic showbiz parents, Walter, a radio actor, and Marcella, a stage actress. His parents separated when he was very young, with Vaughn and his mother relocating to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he attended North High School and later enrolled in the University of Minnesota as a journalism major. He quit after a year and moved to Los Angeles, California. There he majored in theater at Los Angeles City College, where he earned his Master's degree. Continuing his higher education even through his successful acting career, Vaughn earned a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Southern California, published his dissertation as the book Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting in 1972.

Professional career

Robert Vaughn on the cover of the first Man from U.N.C.L.E. novel, by Michael Avallone

He made his screen debut on the "Black Friday" episode of the TV series Medic (airdate November 21, 1955), the first of more than 200 episodic roles by mid-2000. His first movie appearance was as an uncredited extra in The Ten Commandments (1956), playing a golden calf idolator and also visible in a scene in a chariot behind that of Yul Brynner. Vaughn's credited movie role came the following year in the Western Hell's Crossroads (1957), in which he played the real-life Bob Ford, the killer of outlaw Jesse James.

Vaughn's first notable appearance was in The Young Philadelphians (1959) for which he was nominated for a Supporting Actor Academy Award. Next he 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 being adaptations of filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese samurai epic, Seven Samurai. Vaughn played a different role, Judge Oren Travis, on the 1998-2000 syndicated TV series The Magnificent Seven.

From 1964-1968, he starred as "Napoleon Solo", the eponymous man from U.N.C.L.E. ("United Network Command for Law and Enforcement"), along with British co-star David McCallum. Following the end of that hit series — which had spawned a spin-off show, large amounts of merchandising, and overseas theatrical movies of reedited episodes — Vaughn continued to act in television and in mostly B movies. He starred in two seasons of the popular Gerry Anderson detective series The Protectors in the early 1970s, and a decade later co-starred with George Peppard in the final season of The A-Team.

In 2004, after a string of guest starring roles on series such as Law & Order, in which he had a recurring role during season eight, Vaughn experienced a career resurgence when he began co-starring in the BBC series, Hustle, telecast in the United States on the cable network AMC. In the series, Vaughn plays elder-statesman con artist Albert Stroller, a father figure to a group of younger grifters. In September 2006 he guest starred in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Vaughn has also done a series of local television commercials for personal injury law firms offices across the U.S., including in Atlanta, Georgia, Norfolk, Virginia, Providence, Rhode Island, Lexington, Kentucky, Knoxville, Tennessee, Abingdon, Virginia, Springfield, Illinois, Evansville, Indiana, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania .

Vaughn married actress Linda Staab in 1974. They have adopted two children, Cassidy (b. 1975) and Caitlin (b. 1981). They also have a Labrador Retriever mix named Sam (named after the beer, Sam Adams), which was adopted after the death of their previous dog, a Bichon Frisé named Peaches.

Politically, he is a moderate Democrat.

Selected credits

Stage

• Has portrayed Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (in addition to Woodrow Wilson, in the 1979 television miniseries Backstairs at the White House. He additionally played Roosevelt on TV, in the 1982 telefilm FDR: That Man in the White House).

Film

• "No Time to be Young" (1957)
• Teenage Cave Man (1958)
• Good Day for a Hanging (1958)
• The Young Philadelphians (1959)
• The Magnificent Seven (1960)
• Bullitt (1968)
• The Bridge at Remagen (1969)
• Julius Caesar (1970)
• The Towering Inferno (1974)
• Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
• S.O.B. (1981)
• Demon Seed (1977; voice, uncredited)
• Superman III (1983)
• Renegade (1987)
• The Delta Force (1986)
• BASEketball (1998)
• pootie tang (2001)

Television

• Dry Run, episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents series (1959)
• Solo (pilot episode for the below)
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• The Protectors
• Columbo (guest appearance)
• Emerald Point N.A.S.
• The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. (telefilm)
• Centennial later part of the miniseries
• The A-Team
• The Nanny (guest appearance as Maxwell Sheffield's father)
• Hustle

References

• Robert Vaughn at IMDb
• Official Robert Vaughn Website
• Robert Vaughn tribute