As a young actor trying to make your name, having your wife stolen by your mega-famous co-star is the kind of thing you’d imagine would eternally be deemed unforgivable.
Not so for David McCallum. His Great Escape co-star Charles Bronson romanced then married David’s then-wife Jill Ireland but David is remarkably sanguine about it.
“I never hated him, Charlie was always a good friend,” he says. “I find that when problems come along, worrying about them and getting anxious and negative is quite unnecessary. You can solve them, usually amicably. That’s what happened.”
He might be positive about the split now but he does admit: “It was an extremely difficult time, not least because we had three children.”
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But of reports that, after meeting actress Jill during filming, Bronson told David, “I’m going to marry your wife”, he insists: “I have absolutely no recognition of that.”
![US actor Charles Bronson](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7459323.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/PRODUCTION-US-actor-Charles-Bronson.jpg)
It is typical of the positivity which seems to ooze from every statement the 82-year-old makes.
“I’ve had an incredible life,” says the star, who lives in New York state.
“I can sit here for a week and talk to you about the past 82 years and 99.9% will be wonderful and positive.”
That hasn’t always been the case for David. His adopted son Jason, who had been about to become a dad, died from an accidental overdose aged 27, in 1989.
![David McCallum and wife Jill Ireland](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7459324.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/PRODUCTION-David-McCallum-and-wife-Jill-Ireland.jpg)
“The worst moment of my life was when I lost my son, there’s no question of that,” says David. “Losing people you love are always the most terrible moments, especially when they’re so young.
“Things remind you of the loss, birthdays and things. But it’s gone, it’s done. He’s not coming back, so I don’t dwell on it. The best moment of my life is right now.”
This is a man who clearly counts his blessings. After divorcing Jill, who stayed with Bronson until her death at 54 in 1990 from breast cancer, he wed Katherine Carpenter and had two more children. They have been happily married for 48 years.
![David McCallum of NCIS on the CBS Television Network](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7459327.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/PAY-PRODUCTION-David-McCallum-of-NCIS-on-the-CBS-Television-Network.jpg)
In a career spanning seven decades, David is still enjoying success as Ducky Mallard, chief medical examiner on NCIS, voted America’s favourite show, and has just had his first novel published, Once a Crooked Man.
He adds: “To be playing wonderful characters at my age and having a book that’s selling like crazy, I mean, come on, what else do you want?
“NCIS is in its 13th season now and we’ve just done our 300th episode. To be the number-one drama show, practically worldwide... well, it’s television history.”
![Mark Harmon and David McCallum](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7459325.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/PRODUCTION-Mark-Harmon-and-David-McCallum.jpg)
Though David has been on NCIS for 13 years, older generations will always remember him for past glories.
Born to a middle-class family in west Glasgow, he had a career boom in the 1950s and 1960s. After starring with screen legend Steve McQueen in movie The Great Escape, he played Russian agent Illya Kuryakin in US TV spy series The Man From UNCLE.
In the 1970s he played another prisoner of war in TV drama Colditz, before a short spell as The Invisible Man in 1975.
!['Sapphire and Steel' Joanna Lumley and David McCallum](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7459326.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/PRODUCTION-Sapphire-and-Steel-Joanna-Lumley-and-David-McCallum.jpg)
He then enjoyed another hit as Steel in ITV sci-fi series Sapphire & Steel, from 1979-1982, with a young Joanna Lumley.
Of his co-star, he says: “There’s something wonderful about a beautiful woman smiling, and the first thing that comes to mind with Joanna is her incredible smile.
“She’s beautiful, talented and a fascinating conversationalist. My only regret is that the Atlantic is between us.”
![](http://img.youtube.com/vi/tM5gbwUrIgw/0.jpg)
David’s first taste of showbiz glamour came when he studied alongside Joan Collins at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London.
“Joan and I were in the same class and used to do fencing classes together too,” he says, with a laugh.
“She’d wear a skin-tight jumpsuit and she was, shall we say, very impressive. She wasn’t that good a fencer but, boy, she looked good.”
![The Great Escape - How to Get Rid of the Dirt (1963)](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7459330.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/PRODUCTION-The-Great-Escape-How-to-Get-Rid-of-the-Dirt-1963.jpg)
After graduating he had small parts in TV and movies but it was The Great Escape in 1963 that introduced him to a global audience.
It was his character, naval officer Eric Ashley-Pitt, who had the idea of disposing of soil dug from the escape tunnel via their trousers as they walked outside.
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Recalling his time on set, David says: “There was this wee kid from Glasgow and I’m working with extraordinary people like Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson.
![Steve McQueen sitting astride a motorcycle in a publicity still issued for the film, 'The Great Escape', 1963](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7075712.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Steve-McQueen.jpg)
“I remember how, outside the German studios, the police set up speed traps. The likes of Donald Pleasence and myself always stuck to the speed limit.
“But one day the policeman stopped Steve and asked him to get out of the car. They told him that they’d stopped many of his comrades but he had won the prize as the fastest.
“They took poor Steve to the police station and the whole production had to stop for a few hours.”
While the film spelled the end of his marriage, it boosted his career. The next year, aged 29, he landed his career-defining role in The Man from UNCLE, opposite Robert Vaughn. It ran until 1968.
![Robert Vaughn as Napolean Solo, left, and David McCallum as Ilya Kuryakin](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7459329.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/PAY-PRODUCTION-Robert-Vaughn-as-Napolean-Solo-left-and-David-McCallum-as-Ilya-Kuryakin.jpg)
David soon became a sex symbol thanks to his mop of blond hair, though he insists his image was cultivated by studio bosses.
“When I was filmed with the studio lights, I looked really blond. The look was part of the whole enigmatic thing they did with my character Illya, producing a climate of mystery about him. It had great appeal.”
MGM Studios claimed he got more fan mail than any other star in their history, though David insists Vaughn got just as much. They were both regularly mobbed.
He says: “I went for a walk in Central Park in New York and a crowd gathered around me. Then people started pushing, and from the back came two mounted policemen, who had to lift me up. We trotted out of the park.”
![Robert Vaughn, Stefanie Powers and David McCallum](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article6119928.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Robert-Vaughn-Stefanie-Powers-and-David-McCallum.jpg)
Was he disappointed not to have been offered a cameo Guy Ritchie’s movie reboot of the show last year?
“Not in the slightest,” he says. “I think they can just drag people into films from the old days and it’s more of a gimmick and distraction. So I’m glad in a way. I was also greatly relieved that they didn’t do anything that we did in the 1960s.”
Today David, who has eight grandchildren, has every reason to be happy. NCIS has 22 million viewers in the US alone, though he says: “It’s not me, it’s the part I play.
![Actor David McCallum (L) and his wife Katherine Carpenter](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7459328.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/PRODUCTION-Actor-David-McCallum-L-and-his-wife-Katherine-Carpenter.jpg)
“The other day I had people coming up to shake my hand, saying, ‘Thank you, we love the show’. But my life on screen is entirely created by superb NCIS writers.”
He at least has to take credit for Once a Crooked Man, his quirky crime novel split between the US and UK.
David says: “About 15 years ago I was reading a Jack Higgins novel and I thought, ‘I could do this’ but I didn’t know how to write. So I taught myself with a pencil and a little notebook.
“All of a sudden I’m a published author, which I found incredible and funny. But the reviews have been fantastic.” Though with publishers already pushing for a second novel, he adds: “I have so much in my life to do, I just wish there were two of me.”
- Once a Crooked Man is out now.