However, in an interview with Alan Titchmarsh broadcast on 3 November 2010, McCallum stated that he had actually held his Equity card since 1946. A James Dean-themed photograph of McCallum caught the attention of the Rank Organisation, who signed him in 1956. His first acting role was in Whom the Gods Love, Die Young playing a doomed royal.
He began his acting career doing boy voices for BBC Radio in 1947 and taking bit parts in British films from the late 1950s. In 1951, McCallum became assistant stage manager of the Glyndebourne Opera Company. ( September 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification. After leaving the army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (also in London), where Joan Collins was a classmate. In March 1954, he was promoted to lieutenant. He joined the British Army's 3rd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, which was seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force. He left school at age 18 and was conscripted for National Service. 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. In 1946, at the age of 13, he began doing boy voices for the BBC radio repertory company. 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. Early in the Second World War, he was evacuated back to Scotland, where he lived with his mother at Gartocharn by Loch Lomond. When he was three, his family moved to London for his father to play as the leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. On film, McCallum notably appeared in The Great Escape (1963), and as Judas Iscariot in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).ĭavid Keith McCallum was born on 19 September 1933 in Glasgow the second of two sons of orchestral violinist David McCallum Sr. Beginning in 2003, McCallum gained renewed international popularity for his role as NCIS medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in the American television series NCIS, which he played for 20 seasons until his death. His other notable television roles include Simon Carter in Colditz (1972–1974) and Steel in Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982).
He gained wide recognition in the 1960s for playing secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. David Keith McCallum (19 September 1933 – 25 September 2023) was a Scottish actor and musician.