Robert Vaughn

He subsequently appeared in scores of films, notably as gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven (1960), Walter Chalmers in Bullitt, Major Paul Krueger in The Bridge at Remagen (1969), the voice of Proteus IV in Demon Seed (1977) and Ross Webster in Superman III (1983). To television audiences, in addition to his role as Solo, Vaughn was known for his roles as private detective Harry Rule on The Protectors (1972–74), Morgan Wendell in the miniseries Centennial (1978–79), and Albert Stroller on the BBC Television drama Hustle (2004–12). He won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of the White House Chief of Staff in the miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors. He also appeared in the British soap opera Coronation Street as Milton Fanshaw from January until February 2012. Aside from his acting career, Vaughn was active in Democratic Party politics. He was chair of the California Democratic State Central Committee speakers bureau during the 1960s, and publicly campaigned against the Vietnam War as a member of the peace group Another Mother for Peace. In 1970, Vaughn earned a PhD in communications. His doctoral thesis, "The Influence of the House Committee on Un-American Activities on the American Theater 1938–58", is considered "the most complete and intelligent treatment of the virulent practice of blacklisting now available."

Robert Vaughn studied at University of Minnesota, California State University, Los Angeles and University of Southern California. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are Western. Distinctions recorded are Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• Name — Robert Vaughn • Birth Name — Robert Francis Vaughn • Born — 22 November 1932 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 11 November 2016 • Place of death — Danbury, Connecticut, U.S. • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1940s–2016 • Political Party — Democratic • Children — 2 • Awards — See article

Robert Vaughn was born on November 22, 1932, to Gerald Walter and Marcella Frances (née Gaudel) Vaughn at Charity Hospital in New York City. Vaughn's father was a radio actor and his mother was a stage actress. His parents divorced, and Vaughn lived with his grandparents Frank and Mary Gaudel in Minneapolis while his mother traveled and performed. Discussing his childhood in a 1965 New York Sunday News interview, Vaughn said, "I was a complete wreck as a child, emotionally unstable, excessively prideful," adding that he often felt miserable: "I cried all the time and I was always getting beat up."

• Illustration — Robert Francis Vaughn senior portrait photo – 1950 North High School Polaris yearbook Vaughn attended Lowell Elementary, Jordan Junior High School and North High School in Minneapolis, graduating in 1950. Nicknamed "Nobby", Vaughn's activity in high school included the Polaris Weekly school newspaper, the student council and various sports, including being named captain of the cross-country team. After high school, he enrolled in the University of Minnesota as a journalism major. However, he dropped out after a year and moved to Los Angeles with his mother. He studied theater arts at Los Angeles City College in 1956 and transferred to Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences earning a master's degree in theater in 1960.

Vaughn was inducted into the U.S. Army Reserve on November 29, 1955, and entered active duty on December 18, 1956, at Fort Ord, California. During his first leave, he discovered his mother had been diagnosed with Berger's disease, an often fatal kidney disorder. Vaughn applied for an Honorable Hardship discharge. While waiting for a decision, Vaughn was held over at Fort Ord and served as a drill instructor. Discharged from active duty on May 26, 1957, he again served in the U.S. Army Reserve until November 1962.

Vaughn's mother encouraged his becoming an actor early in his life. She taught Vaughn to recite Shakespeare's “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet when he was five. Vaughn's mother assisted him in being cast on radio shows in the Chicago area. He debuted on radio playing the part of Billy on Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy broadcast on WBBM (AM) radio. In 1950 Vaughn worked as a page at Minneapolis' WCCO (AM). "My job was a kind of glorified page boy position, but I was allowed to wear civvies rather than the silly uniforms often sported by studio guides and messengers in those days". His first film appearance was as an extra in The Ten Commandments (1956), playing a golden calf idolator. Vaughn is also visible during a chariot scene behind Yul Brynner. Vaughn's first credited movie role was 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 played in at least one episode of The Rifleman. He played Dan, a West Point dropout who was appointed temporary Marshal of North Fork.

Vaughn's first notable appearance was in The Young Philadelphians (1959). Vaughn credited Paul Newman with helping him earn his first major film role. "The person who launched my career into A-list movies was Paul Newman. When my agent called and said Warner Bros. had a role for me in The Young Philadelphians, I mentioned it to Paul, who belonged to the same health club I did. He told me it was the perfect role for me and offered to do the screen test with me. That was unheard of. In a screen test, you run your lines with a script girl who is off camera. I had never done one before, but Paul did it with me and the result was wonderful". In the film, Vaughn portrayed alcoholic veteran Chet Gwynn who lost his arm in the Korean War and was falsely accused of murder. His acting in the film earned Vaughn nominations for both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

Vaughn's next role was the gun for hire Lee in director John Sturges' 1960 film The Magnificent Seven. The film was an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese samurai epic Seven Samurai set in the American frontier. Vaughn recalled the morning in January when he arrived in Sturges' office for his audition, "...an ax was hanging over every movie project in Hollywood. Unless the casting for a picture was completed by noon on a particular Friday, production couldn't begin". Telling Vaughn he wanted to cast him based on his performance in The Young Philadelphians, Sturges said, "We don't have a script, just Kurosawa's picture to work from. You'll have to go on faith. But we'll be filming in Cuernavaca. Never been there? You'll love it — it's the 'Palm Springs of Mexico'." Vaughn told Sturges, "I'm in." Saying, "Good decision, young man," Sturges asked, "And do you know any other good young actors? I've got four other slots to fill." Vaughn suggested James Coburn, a friend and former classmate. Sturges hired Coburn. Vaughn's portrayal of hired gunslinger Lee included wearing black gloves throughout the film, signifying his reluctance to "get his hands dirty" even while continuing to kill for hire. Vaughn's acting showed Lee's internal struggle with cowardice. Having lost his nerve, he could not fight until he finally summoned the internal courage to face certain death while freeing hostages. When offered the chance to run, Vaughn's Lee is told, "Go ahead, Lee, you don't owe anything to anybody." His answer? "Except to myself." Vaughn died in 2016, the last of The Magnificent Seven actors.

After The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 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 1983, he starred as villainous multi-millionaire Ross Webster in Superman III.

Vaughn made his television debut on the November 21, 1955, "Black Friday" episode of the American television series Medic, the first of Vaughn's over two hundred episodic television roles through the mid-2000s.

In 1956, Vaughn made his first guest appearance on Gunsmoke in the episode entitled “Cooter.” The following year, he made his second guest appearance on Gunsmoke opposite Barbara Eden in a Romeo-Juliet role, in the episode "Romeo", which turned out okay for the bride and groom.

In 1962, Vaughn starred as Boston based private detective A. Dunster Lowell in The Boston Terrier episode of the NBC network's anthology series The Dick Powell Show. The episode was a pilot episode of a proposed Blake Edwards TV series. Edwards had created the popular Peter Gunn television show.

In 1963, Vaughn 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".

During the 1963–64 season of The Lieutenant, Vaughn appeared as Captain Raymond Rambridge alongside Gary Lockwood, who played a Marine second lieutenant at Camp Pendleton. Vaughn had guest-starred on Lockwood's 1961–62 series Follow the Sun.

His dissatisfaction with the somewhat diminished aspect of the Rambridge character led Vaughn 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. • Illustration — Vaughn as Napoleon Solo with David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin • Illustration — Vaughn with Kurt Russell in a 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 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, Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Explaining the two The Man from U.N.C.L.E. characters' appeal, Vaughn said, “Girls age 9 to 12 liked David McCallum because he was so sweet, but the old ladies and the 13- to 16-year-olds liked me because I was so detached”. At the height of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. show's popularity, Vaughn reported receiving 70,000 fan letters a month. "I was bombarded with house and apartment keys labeled with the addresses of the adoring girls who lived behind those doors," he wrote in his 2008 memoir, A Fortunate Life. "At the end of our first season, I had to put up an electric fence around my house to keep out the girls. I even tried using recorded animal noises to fend off my visitors, but I could never operate the sound system." Vaughn said the success of the show boosted his career. "Not only was it a great deal of fun, it changed me from being a working actor to a negotiating actor. After U.N.C.L.E., I never accepted the first offer: if I wanted more money, I asked for it. A better dressing room? Four first-class tickets instead of two? I'd ask for them, and I'd often get them." In 1966, during the initial The Man from U.N.C.L.E. broadcast run, Vaughn appeared as a bachelor on the premiere episode of the nighttime version of The Dating Game which aired on October 6, 1966. Karen Carlson, the 1964 Miss America pageant first runner-up, chose Vaughn as her date, which included a trip to London, England. After The Man from U.N.C.L.E was canceled in 1968, Vaughn continued to appear on television and in films.

Vaughn starred in two seasons of the British detective series The Protectors from 1972 through 1974. Vaughn was disappointed in the show, saying the series was "much below the American standard". He sad the show "may have the redeeming feature of any escapist entertainment, that you can sit down for 22 minutes and watch people in pretty clothes run around shooting guns and so get your mind off your personal problems. If that's redemptive, it has that quality."

Vaughn first appeared on daytime television in 1995 as a guest-star playing Rick Hamlin on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. Vaughn later appeared in 1996 on ABC's One Life to Live playing the role of Bishop Corrington. In 2012 Vaughn appeared for three weeks in the British soap opera Coronation Street as wealthy American Milton Fanshaw.

Vaughn played Judge Oren Travis on the 1998–2000 CBS television series The Magnificent Seven.

Vaughn experienced a resurgence in 2004. He began co-starring in the British TV drama series Hustle, made for BBC One. The series was also broadcast in the United States on the AMC cable channel. In the series, Vaughn played elder-statesman American con artist Albert Stroller, a father figure to a group of younger grifters. He ultimately appeared in all eight series aired from 2004 to 2012. When show producer Simon Crawford Collins met Vaughn, he recognized "straight away that he could bring a whole new dimension to the part of Albert". He later called Vaughn, offering him the role. Vaughn said during the call he was "told to get on a plane an hour after I got the phone call and start shooting the following day." In 2006, Vaughn said "I imagined that Napoleon Solo had retired from U.N.C.L.E., whatever U.N.C.L.E. was. What could he do now to use his talents and to supplement his government pension? I imagined Stroller as Napoleon Solo, The Later Years".

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 Woodrow Wilson (in the 1979 television mini-series Backstairs at the White House). He additionally played Roosevelt in the 1982 HBO telefilm FDR: That Man in the White House. In 1983–1984, he appeared as industrialist Harlan Adams in the short-lived series Emerald Point N.A.S., replacing Patrick O'Neal. Robert Vaughn guest-starred as the mercenary "Rykker" in the Season 1 episodes "Dragonswing" (1993) and "Dragonswing II" (1994) of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. In the mid-1990s, he made several cameo appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as an audience member who berates the host and his guests beginning with "you people make me sick." After a string of guest roles on series such as Law & Order (in which he had a recurring role during season eight as Carl Anderton, a wealthy businessman who vows revenge on the NYC DA's office and longtime friend Adam Schiff for sending his grandson to juvenile correction for murdering his stepsister). In September 2006, he guest-starred on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Vaughn also appeared as himself narrating and being a character in a radio play broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2007 about making the film The Bridge at Remagen in Prague, during the Russian invasion of 1968.

In 1966, Vaughn founded a film production company, Ferdporqui Productions with his lifelong best friend actor Sherwood Price. The company was headquartered at the M.G.M. Studios in Culver City, California. They purchased production options on books and scripts in the 1960s. In 1966 they acquired the production rights to Joseph Sargent's "story idea" Bridge on the River Hudson and hired Peter Allan Fields to produce a script treatment. Vaughn was reportedly to star in their first independent film venture. They also acquired the rights to Robert Laxalt's novel The Man in the Wheatfield in 1966 and sought investors in the proposed film's production. In 1968, the company opened a branch office in Great Britain. In the 1970s Ferdporqui Productions provided production management on The Protectors which starred Vaughn.

Vaughn's investments included profitable livestock herds and west Texas gas wells which made him a millionaire. In 1967, one of his wells saw an increase in production output from $13 per week to $270 per day, a $98,550 annual output. The reportedly frugal Vaughn said, "If it went tomorrow, it wouldn't visibly change my life." Vaughn said he had lived on one-quarter of his salary for the past ten years and that his business manager allowed him $25 spending money per week.

In later years, Vaughn appeared in syndicated advertisements marketed by Commercial Pro, Inc. for various personal injury and workers compensation law firms, using the catchphrase, "Tell them you mean business". Vaughn was also an infomercial pitchman from 1985 through 1990 for the Helsinki Formula, a claimed baldness cure. In 1994 the Federal Trade Commission sued, blocking the product's bogus claims, but $100 million of the product had already been sold. In 1993, Vaughn told The Los Angeles Times he had no problem promoting the Helsinki Formula "cure". He said, "That was about the most profitable thing I've ever done in my life. Every call that came in on the 800 number, I got a piece of that."

During the late 1960s, Joyce Jameson was a girlfriend of Vaughn's. She acted opposite Vaughn as a guest star on a 1966 U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Dippy Blond Affair". • Illustration — Vaughn at a memorabilia event in March 2009 Vaughn married actress Linda Staab in 1974. They had appeared together in a 1973 episode of The Protectors, called "It Could Be Practically Anywhere on the Island". They adopted two children, Cassidy (born 1976) and Caitlin (born 1981). They resided in Ridgefield, Connecticut. For many years, it was believed Vaughn was the biological father of English film director and producer Matthew Vaughn, born when the actor was in a relationship with early 1970s socialite Kathy Ceaton. However, a paternity investigation identified the father as George de Vere Drummond, an English aristocrat and godson of King George VI. Early in Matthew's life, when all believed Vaughn was the father, he asked for "his" child's surname to be Vaughn, which Matthew continues to use professionally, still seeing Vaughn as his social father, even if not biologically.

Vaughn was a longtime member of the Democratic Party. His family was also Democratic and was involved in politics in Minneapolis. Early in his career, he was described as a "liberal Democrat". He was opposed to the Hollywood Blacklist of suspected Communists on freedom of speech principles, but Vaughn also was opposed to Communism as a totalitarian system. Vaughn campaigned for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 United States presidential election. He was the chair of the California Democratic State Central Committee speakers bureau and actively campaigned for candidates in the 1960s. Vaughn was the first popular American actor to take a public stand against the Vietnam War and was active in the peace group Another Mother for Peace. Vaughn debated with William F. Buckley Jr. on his program Firing Line on the Vietnam War. With Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner, he was a founder of Dissenting Democrats. Early in the 1968 presidential election, they supported the candidacy of Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy, who was running for president as an alternative to Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had supported President Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam. Vaughn was reported to have political ambitions of his own, but in a 1973 interview, he denied having had any political aspirations. In a conversation with historian Jack Sanders, he stated that after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, "I lost heart for the battle".

Vaughn died in a hospice in Danbury, Connecticut, on November 11, 2016, at the age of 83, after undergoing a year-long treatment for leukemia.

• 1960: Academy Award nominee – Actor in a Supporting Role – The Young Philadelphians • 1960: Golden Globe nominee – Best Supporting Actor – The Young Philadelphians • 1961: Golden Globe nominee – New Star of the Year – Actor – The Magnificent Seven • 1965: Golden Globe nominee – Actor in a Television Series – The Man from U.N.C.L.E. • 1965: Photoplay – Most Popular Male Star • 1966: Golden Globe nominee – Actor in a Television Series – The Man from U.N.C.L.E. • 1970: BAFTA Film Award nominee – Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Bullitt • 1978: Emmy Award – Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actor – Washington: Behind Closed Doors • 1979: Emmy Award nominee – Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series – Backstairs at the White House • 1998: Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, 6600 block of Hollywood Boulevard

• Year — Title — Role — Theatre — Dates — Notes • 1955 — The Pilgrimage — Judas Iscariot — Pilgrimage Theater, Hollywood — Unknown — Pilgrimage Theater is now known as the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. • 1979 — The Real Inspector Hound — Moon — United States — Unknown • 1985 — Inherit The Wind — Henry Drummond — Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, NJ — March 1985 • 1989 — Love Letters — Andrew Makepiece Ladd III — Edison Theatre — October 31, 1989 – January 21, 1990 — * Directed by John Tillinger * Written by A.R. Gurney • 2013 — Twelve Angry Men — Juror 9 — * Birmingham Repertory Theatre * Garrick Theatre — * October 2013 * November 2013 – June 2014

Vaughn earned a PhD in communications from the University of Southern California in 1970. His doctoral dissertation, titled "The Influence of the House Committee on Un-American Activities on the American Theater 1938–58", was an appraisal of the effect the committee's activities had on American theater. Vaughn's original research included data from questionnaires and interviews he conducted with witnesses who had been labeled "uncooperative" by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1972, he published his dissertation as a book titled Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting. Kirkus Reviews lists the book as "the most complete and intelligent treatment of the virulent practice of blacklisting now available". Still in print, the book is regularly assigned to law students.

Vaughn published Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting in 1972. His second book, A Fortunate Life, was an autobiography published in 2008 in which Vaughn said of his life, "With a modest amount of looks and talent and more than a modicum of serendipity, I've managed to stretch my 15 minutes of fame into more than half a century of good fortune." "The breaks all fell my way".