ROBERT VAUGHN - dies aged 83 - R.I.P.

Robert Francis Vaughn died just short of his 84th Birthday on Friday 11th November surrounded by his close family in Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA following complications brought about by acute leukaemia. Born on 22nd November 1932 in New York City to an acting family - his father a radio actor and his mother a stage actress, it was almost inevitable that the young Robert would follow in their footsteps despite the fact that they separated and divorced whilst in his formative years. Vaughn's work spanned seven decades but it is perhaps for his role in the classic '60's television spy series 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' that he is best known - as American spy Napoleon Solo paired up with David McCallum's Russian counterpart Illya Kuryakin over 105 episodes covering four seasons from 1964 through to 1968. Vaughn received two Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal of Solo as Best TV Star in 1965 and 1966. The series was made into a feature film in 2015 featuring Henry Cavill in the Solo role and Armie Hammer as Kuryakin.

He made his small screen debut in an episode of 'Medic' in 1955, with his big screen debut coming a year later in 1956 in an uncredited role in Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments' with Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and Edward G. Robinson. He spent the balance of the late '50's appearing in various small fry movies and numerous one off television series episodes including 'Gunsmoke', 'Dragnet', 'Mike Hammer' and 'Zorro' before his breakout role in 'The Young Philadelphians' in 1959 with Paul Newman  - and which garnered Vaughn an Oscar and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. A year later he would appear alongside an all star cast in the classic John Sturges Western 'The Magnificent Seven' with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Eli Wallach, James Coburn and Horst Buchholz. Vaughn's role garnered him another Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Male Newcomer.

Television series appearances dominated the '60's thereafter with the likes of 'Wagon Train', 'Tales of Wells Fargo', 'Bonanza', 'The Virginian', 'The Untouchables', 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', 'The Lieutenant' and then 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' which also spawned several film spin-offs through until the series was taken off air in 1968. 'Bullitt' came next in 1968 with Steve McQueen, for which again Vaughn was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. 'The Bridge at Remagen', 'Julius Caesar', 'The Mind of Mr. Soames' and 'The Man from Independence' took us up to 1974 high rise disaster epic 'The Towering Inferno' with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman again.

'The Protectors' saw Vaughn return to a regular slot in a half hour adventure crime series as Harry Rule  - one third of a small but tight band of freelance troubleshooters who operate an international crime fighting agency. The show ran for 52 episodes from 1972 through to 1974. Throughout the remainder of the '70's Vaughn starred in television fare including 'Police Woman' with Angie Dickinson, 'Columbo' with Peter Falk, mini-series 'Captains and the Kings', mini-series 'Washington : Behind Closed Doors', mini-series 'Centennial', with a bunch of feature and made for television movies in between.

The '80's produced more of the same for Vaughn with more notable highlights being 'Battle Beyond the Stars' with George Peppard, 'S.O.B' with Julie Andrews, 'Superman III' with Christopher Reeve, 'The Delta Force' with Chuck Norris, 'Black Moon Rising' with Tommy Lee Jones, and 'The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.' with David McCallum of course. There were also a whole bunch of B-Grade and even some C-Grade films to pay the bills presumably including the instantly forgettable 'They Call Me Renegade', 'Killing Birds', 'C.H.U.D. II : Bud the C.H.U.D', 'River of Death' and 'Transylvania Twist', as well as turns on popular television series 'The Love Boat', 'Emerald Point N.A.S.', and 'The A-Team' amongst others.

The '90's continued in a similar vein, with ongoing television series appearances on the likes of 'Diagnosis Murder', 'Walker : Texas Ranger', 'The Nanny', 'Law & Order' and 'The Magnificent Seven' television series reboot in the latter half of the decade. His output in the new decade became more selective and less frequent, although a successful and long running show for AMC and the BBC 'Hustle', playing Albert Stroller, ran for eight seasons from 2004 onwards and featured Vaughn in a leading role together with a band of confidence tricksters based in London righting wrongs and working against the low lifes, the crims, and the underworld to help those that can't help themselves or need some assistance along the way. He followed this up with thirteen episodes on the longest running television soap opera of them all 'Coronation Street' in 2012. After this Vaughn still managed to bash out five films in the last five years - 'Excuse Me For Living', 'The Magnificent Eleven', 'A Cry From Within', 'The American Side' released earlier this year, and 'Gold Star' which has just had its US release.

All up Vaughn boasted 226 Acting credits to his name spanning seven decades in the business. He Directed an episode of 'The Protectors' in 1973, and an episode of 'Police Woman' in 1976, he had three Award wins and nine other nominations including an Oscar nod, four Golden Globes, a BAFTA and a Primetime Emmy. Vaughn also published two books - 'Only Victims : A Study of Show Business Blacklisting' in 1972 and 'A Fortunate Life', published in 2008. He married Linda Staab in 1974 and they remained married until the time of his death. They had two adopted children, Cassidy born in 1976 and Caitlin born in 1981.

Robert Vaughn - leaves behind a legacy of film and television appearances across all genres, spanning more than sixty years of many notable performances and some less so, but nonetheless a body of work to be admired and remembered. With a distinctive yet sometimes menacing voice, often playing political figures from history or fiction, but never typecast, he kept working and was in demand right up to the end. Thanks for the memories.

Robert Vaughn - Rest In Peace
1932 - 2016

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. : Wednesday 19th August 2015.

'THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.' which I saw earlier this week had its roots as a television series which ran originally from September 1964 until January 1968 across 105 episodes and launched the careers of Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as American Agent, Napoleon Solo and Ukranian Agent, Illya Kuryakin, respectively. Hugely successful with spin off comic books, novels, TV Annuals, merchandise, soundtracks and feature length episodes this was another espionage drama born in the 60's in a similar frame as Bond and 'Mission : Impossible' that was ripe for big screen treatment. And so Guy Ritchie is the man for the job tasked to recreate the 60's in his US$75M Directed offering that has for many years lingered in development hell as Directors of note (including Matthew Vaughn and Steven Soderbergh), Writers of repute (including Quentin Tarantino) and big name actors (including Cruise, Clooney, McGregor, Reynolds, Bale, Tatum, Gosling, Damon, Fassbender, Cooper, DiCaprio and Crowe) all came and went. As well as Directing, Ritchie also aided in devising the story, wrote the Screenplay and Produced too.

The story takes us right back to the beginning before British CIA Agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and Russian KGB Agent Ilya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) reluctantly join forces in the 1963 Cold War Era to thwart an evil foe intent on starting a nuclear attack. The film opens with Solo having to extract Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) from East Berlin in a car chase through the back streets of the divided and heavily armed city chased on foot and in car by Kuryakin. Teller's father is a WWII Nazi Scientist turned American collaborator who is being held by wealthy shipping company owners Alexander and Victoria Vinciguerra (Lucas Calvani and Elizabeth Debicki respectively) to build their own nuclear device.

Having evaded Kuryakin so far and extracted the girl, Solo is confronted with his KGB nemesis once more in a public toilet block where a fight breaks out with the Russian gaining the upper hand this time before being interrupted by each of their respective handlers. At this point the two are instructed that they must join forces to prevent the nuclear weapon from being finalised, and in turn secretly secure the design schemes for their own governments.

As the story moves to Rome, so meetings are engineered with the Vinciguerra's with the trio of Solo, Kuryakin and Teller all acting undercover and incognito to win favour and gain access to their plans. The two Agents infiltrate a shipping yard owned by the Vinciguerra's and after finding traces of Uranium they trip the alarms, alert the guards which results in a foot chase and then a boat chase as they seek to get clear and away.

Following this Solo and Kuryakin are brought together by Alexander Waverly (Hugh Grant) a high ranking MI6 Officer who reveals to the pair that Teller is in fact an Undercover Agent too working for him. The three successfully manage to infiltrate the Vinciguerra's private island compound where a little bit of torture, killing, maiming and chasing goes on before Alexander is killed and Victoria makes off by boat with the finished nuclear warhead. Needless to say Victoria doesn't get too far before her attempts to escape with her payload are thwarted at the end of a second device that is able to lock onto the first being carried on the boat. Farewell Victoria to a watery grave!

Despite saving the world from nuclear undoing, and the action & adventure that the two have been through, Kuryakin remains untrusting of Solo, until the latter makes a gesture that shows the former he has some integrity, honesty and responsibility. As the three Agents drink to their success on the rooftop of the Hotel looking across Rome, Waverly advises them that their respective countries have reassigned them to a new international organisation under his command - code name U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) and they're off to Istanbul. Cue the credits!

The film features many of the Ritchie touchstones including the use of split screen to retain various areas of focus at once; his use of humour to provide some levity and a strong enough recreation of the era. For a 1963 set film the representation of that time is convincing enough, it looks & feels stylish, but the story is fairly average fare only, the action is nothing to write home about, the dialogue a little clunky and strained, and I felt at times that the pace laboured along leaving me wanting more. Ritchie has done some great work with 'Lock, Stock', 'Snatch' and his two more recent 'Sherlock Holmes' outings, but we know too he can give us average fare as seen previously with 'RocknRolla' and 'Revolver' and I would place this latest offering in that bracket too.

You don't have to see this on the big screen and can wait for the DVD or BluRay release to save yourself $20. So far at the time of writing, the film has recouped about half its investment.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-