#Escape from Colditz | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ecoustsaintmein · 2 months ago

Text

@achinghcarts i wrote this for you in one sitting straight onto tumblr, unbetaed. (!!!)

title: intimate; unidentifiable

pairing: paddy x eoin x augustin + established paddy x eoin

rating: m

also for background i'm basing this eoin off the other fic i wrote where he came back from the dead if you're wondering why he's a bit...off.

in a coffeehouse in paris, augustin feels that he is no longer himself.

a familiar compound ghost, paddy's once said.

this is home to him, yes, and the smell of freshly baked baguettes and patisseries and exquisite perfume is in the air. he's seen hardship in the desert, he's known thirst and hunger like no one's ever experienced. and now he struggles to reconcile with the lavish display laid out before him, after his escape from colditz.

he's well aware that after the liberation of paris, the city has all the reason to celebrate. christmas is just around the corner, the germans are gone.

he was lucky that he's managed to escape, when others have tried, and failed. he wonders if stirling's still alive. he's heard rumours that he still is. he wonders if paddy's still alive.

he's heard rumours from the french resistance that paddy still is.

the free french has no idea what to do with him. he's escaped just in time as the city's being liberated, and now he's just awaiting orders. he wonders if there's any way for him to rejoin the sas, if it's even in the cards.

but for now, he will just enjoy being here, being home, being a familiar compound ghost.

with the coffee and the cigarettes and a piece of mille-feuille served on a little dainty plate, with a little dainty cutlery.

"I am the Empire at the end of decadent days, Watching the pale tall Barbarians advance While composing acrostics, in my indolence, In a gilded style where the sun’s languor plays.

The lonely soul aches with a vast ennui. They say bloody battles are being fought down there. O lacking power, so feeble, such tardy prayer, O lacking the will to embellish reality!

O lacking the will and power to die a little! Ah! All is drunk! Bathyllus, life yet laughed away? Ah! All is eaten and drunk! No more to say!",[1]

he thinks.

the woman with the red lipstick and the red dress smiles at him, as if to say, come hither. augustin smiles back, but he doesn't move. he looks away. pulls out his newspaper, which he's scanned twice already, pretending that he's absorbing the words in, reading about the allies' progress across europe. wondering if the sas were ever part of those missions.

american soldiers braying at the table behind him. augustin pays them no mind.

and then:

'is this seat taken?'

it's a strange lilt, not quite american, not english either, though he looks up and the man is wearing a british uniform and a maroon beret; face scarred with gross lines on an otherwise gentle face. he's tall, and thin; almost regal in his bearing. eyes dark, narrowed, glinting; thin lips curving into a line of mischief.

augustin straightens his back and looks around. the cafe is busy, and his table has two extra seats. the man is alone. augustin studies the pips on his epaulettes -- he's a major, augustin thinks, and then looks up at the insignia on his beret, and realizes --

this man is sas.

'i've got a friend who's just coming, is it alright if he joins too?'

'is he sas as well?' augustin asks cautiously. something about this doesn't sit right, a voice inside his head warning him to be careful, to be on guard.

'yes, augustin,' the man says. 'in fact, i think you know him very well, when you were in jalo, together.'

paddy mayne hates him. he knows this from the moment the volatile, bearded, grey-eyed man stared up at him when they first met, those many years ago. it's the hard look in those iron-flint eyes, the frown lines on his forehead, the bunched-up tenseness in his jaw as he snarls orders at augustin, at georges, at those men of the free french.

at first he doesn't understand why paddy's targeted him, more so than the others. georges said that it's maybe because he's the only one who dares to tell him straight what he's doing is downright insane, that he's the only one able to openly scoff and question paddy's decisions, or actions, within and outwith training sessions. stirling told him that it was because he's a philosopher, a lawyer, and a poet too, but surely that's not the only reason.

he doesn't understand why paddy's decided to wrestle with him in the sand, with a knife against his throat, panting against his neck -- hard, and sweaty, and sharp. oh, and he knew that paddy was hard, and hot, savagely digging against his hip. with need. with want.

he doesn't understand why paddy's grieving, or who he is grieving for.

it's only much later, when he met stirling again, within the damp walls of colditz that he said: 'if you'd met eoin mcgonigal, augustin, you'd probably understand why.'

he thinks he's maybe stared at paddy too long when he sits down, tiny coffee cups in his hands, making clinking noises -- one for eoin, and one for himself. paddy looks good, his hair slicked back like honey, in the evening parisian light. he looks healthy, fresh, clean-shaven, handsome.

augustin catches himself, shuddering. he will not think of paddy mayne in this way. the cloying perfume of the women passing by makes him sick, he thinks, because he doesn't want to admit that he feels sick with the horror of this -- of paddy, suddenly reappearing in his life like this, looking smart in his uniform with his clear grey-blue eyes and eoin; this must be eoin, he thinks, with the perpetual smile, unknowable, mysterious.

he is acutely aware of eoin's constant gaze on him, and he has no idea why.

oh, but he now does understand why paddy's mourned so much, and why paddy's been so affected by augustin's presence in jalo. he's heard from stirling about eoin, about how much augustin probably has reminded paddy of eoin -- but he's pushed the thought away, because why would it be relevant? paddy's a hundred miles away and augustin's in colditz and eoin's dead. right?

except -- eoin's now sitting in front of him, almost a reflection of himself, dangerous -- and augustin wonders, who is the familiar compound ghost now, both intimate and unidentifiable?

'So I assumed a double part, and cried And heard another's voice cry: "What! are you here?" Although we were not. I was still the same, Knowing myself yet being someone other-- And he a face still forming; yet the words sufficed To compel the recognition they preceded,' [2]

augustin thinks.

but that was then, when eoin was dead, and paddy was mourning. then augustin was captured and paddy moved on.

if he'd moved on, why are they here?

what use is augustin to them?

eoin speaks, and his voice is rich, deep, plumy. it's nothing like paddy's sharp consonants, though the rhythm of it still compels augustin to listen, to be lost in the melody that he rarely ever hears from other british officers around him.

paddy is stunning, golden, like he's a lamp found in the desert and polished anew, eyes like burning sapphires. they're speaking in turns, now, eoin and paddy, about their exploits throughout italy and france, and how they have this leave, now, before they move out again to god knows where ghq will decide to send them. it's serendipity, they say, that paddy's seen augustin sitting alone outside this cafe, even for just one night that they'll have this reunion.

augustin speaks of his escape, and of stirling's attempt, except -- where stirling's failed, augustin got lucky -- mostly because he was able to speak german and pass as a local.

and eoin's got his long fingers steepled under his chin, nodding, nodding, with his easy going smile and his easy going laughter, it only makes augustin want to open up more, more, more. and with every word that he utters, eoin's watching him intently, as though he's interested, too interested, almost as though he's making moony eyes at augustin, his desires hidden by the shades of his lashes. augustin's heart skips a beat and despite himself he shivers, knowing full well it's not just from the chill in the weather.

paddy's look is still sceptical, still questioning, and augustin wonders is it that they truly want from him.

oh, but they are so close, sitting like this, and augustin sucks in his breath when the american gis behind him push their chairs backwards, making augustin stumble even closer towards paddy. augustin witnesses the flash of temper rising quickly in paddy's eyes, as if he's ready to whip their heads for jolting eoin and augustin, spilling the coffee onto the table. but he also witnesses the way eoin touches the sleeve of paddy's uniform, fingertips brushing against paddy's knuckles, as if to say, there, there. it's not worth it, and paddy's eyes soften.

what do they want from him? augustin wonders, and then -- another american gi stands up abruptly, spilling augustin's coffee onto his lap. 'i think you've got to apologise to my friend here,' eoin says, without rising his voice.

'oh? if not, then what?'

'if not, then maybe you'd like to pay for his coffee, seeing as you caused him to spill it on his lap. aye?'

augustin feels the need to intervene, before this goes any further. he attempt to stand up. eoin's warm hand is on his shoulder -- to steady him, to indicate that he's got this, and the warmth spreads all over him as if his body is on fire.

eoin's hand is still on his shoulder, his thumb absentmindedly caressing his clothed clavicle, under the crisp fabric of his uniform. augustin doesn't move. transfixed. eoin doesn't move, either. staring down this american gi with his wilful eyes, before the gi's mates holler, 'just let it go, man,' and he manages to utter a 'sorry, it was just an accident.' eoin holds up his other palm, asking for money compensation for a spilled cappuccino -- and as if entranced, the gi dumps a few francs and centimes, without counting them, into eoin's upturned hand. scrambling to get away, as if he's seen something in eoin's eyes that jolted him into fear.

'merci beaucoup,' eoin smiles, as the americans leave. 'that was easy, was it not?'

augustin chances a glance at paddy. he beams at eoin, proud, like a man in love, before he blinks and focuses his intense gaze at augustin.

his heart skids through the roof, quickly he looks away -- and makes the unwise decision of looking up at eoin again. at eoin, who's now beaming down at him -- not paddy, but him. as if to say, i didn't do it to impress paddy, i did it to impress you. as if to say, i want you, the way paddy's once wanted you too.

ah, putain, he thinks.

he will not want eoin, or paddy. or the both of them--

but he does.

he does.

'your uniform is ruined,' says eoin, when they walk back along the seine, indicating at the coffee stain on augustin's groin. 'our hotel is just around the corner. you could come with us, if you want. to wash up?'

behind him, paddy looks like a lost schoolboy, fidgeting, almost nervous, almost giddy -- with what?

and augustin thinks, he knows, he thinks he knows. though the words are unspoken but the want is in paddy's eyes; in eoin's eyes. but eoin's the one who's asking, because if paddy were to speak he will never get to the point, his words and poetry snaking around for days and slithering and taking too long lest augustin's interest will fade.

augustin opens his mouth -- to say something, anything -- but his mind goes blank with his own need, his own want, his own desire suddenly stirring inside his veins, curling in his toes. he has never done anything like this before. and why now? why not when he was in the desert, with half-undressed men, almost naked and hot and sweaty in the sun? why now, when he's walking along the seine, in the moonlight, when it's dark and cold and he's barely known eoin, he's barely been reacquainted with paddy mayne?

he cannot even blame wine, or rum -- he is as clear-headed as he can be. the caffeine in his system goes into overdrive mode, his heartbeat fluttering, stomach curling and hoisted up into a knot inside his throat. all he could think about is how close paddy is, if he just reaches out he could touch him, all full and muscular and almost god-like, no longer the skinny bearded savage of jalo. he could see how ethereal eoin is, with his dark curls and his dark lashes; the faint, sweet, citrusy smell of his skin, unlike the heady cloying perfume of those women on the champs-elysees.

'yes,' he says. 'yes, i'll come with you,' augustin says.

he undresses in paddy's bathroom, while eoin fusses with his uniform, tells him that he'll get it laundered by next morning. he luxuriates in a warm bath, the same soapy smell on eoin's skin, then dries himself and wraps a robe to cover his modesty.

paddy is sitting on the other side of the room, a glass of wine in his hand, face scrunched up in concentration. he's playing chess with eoin, who's looking a bit more tired now from the day's exertions. they look innocent, like this. eoin takes one of paddy's white knights, with his black bishop, and says 'check,' and somehow paddy then bursts into laughter, as if there's an inside joke here that augustin has not been made privy to. eoin sips on his wine, and smiles, but because paddy is laughing (for no good reason) eoin ends up chuckling too, he ends up spurting the wine out of his mouth. paddy reaches out to wipe at eoin's bottom lip -- an intimate gesture, a gesture that only does even crueller things to augustin's heart.

quickly he looks away, but not soon enough -- eoin's noticed him, calls out his name -- 'augustin,' and blood flushes in his face, his heart racing.

his feet moves before his brain could catch up, and soon he is standing next to them, waiting, yearning.

eoin's lips are ruby-red, lush rom the wine he's just drank. beside eoin, paddy reaches out towards him, towards the knot at the front of augustin's robes, though his fingers are not quite touching. just -- playing.

like two hunters, playing with their prey. a rabbit in their snare. eoin's mouth crimson as blood, paddy's eyes bright and unescapable.

'augustin jordan,' paddy says, his voice low, and husky --

and there's something in the way paddy utters his full name that makes augustin shudder, makes him swoon, though he is a grown man of thirty and not a schoolgirl of thirteen.

he lets himself be pulled closer, paddy's fingers untying his robe, gently parting them. gently revealing to them how painfully hard he is, how much he wants this, how much he wants them.

eoin stands behind him and removes the robe, ever so slowly, off his shoulder, letting it slide to the floor, before his wicked fingers traces the entire length of him, pushes it down slightly before it bounces back up with a spring.

paddy steps closer, and presses a gentle kiss on eoin's lips, before tilting his head towards augustin, and kisses him too.

chess game forgotten, rooks and kings fallen by the wayside, knocked off the table. maybe augustin is paddy's white knight, helplessly captured by eoin's dark wiles, after all.

there is something wicked about this, about how paddy and eoin are still in their full dress uniforms and augustin's as naked as the day he was born. there is something wicked about this, about how eoin turns his head so that he could kiss him too, and kiss him deeply, tasting of the coffee and the wine and the sweetness of the mille-feuille pastry, and also of paddy. there is something wicked about paddy's mouth, and eoin's tongue, and paddy's hands, and eoin's fingers.

it's an exquisite fever, it makes him delirious, it's hotter than the desert. this white-hot desire that shoots up inside of him, spilling over, onto eoin's mouth, onto paddy's hair, onto his own skin.

once, in a coffeehouse in paris, augustin felt that he was no longer himself.

a familiar compound ghost, paddy's once said.

Augustin thinks.

but maybe it's alright, he thinks. it will be alright.

when they're inside him and he's inside them and augustin's struggling to even know if he's eoin or eoin is him; maybe they're one and the same, when they're inside of each other --

-- when paddy's there, when paddy's everywhere:

both intimate;

-- and

unidentifiable.

. end

[1] - Languor, by Verlaine

[2] - Little Gidding, TS Eliot

#sas rh fic #paddy x eoin x augustin #augustin jordan #paddy mayne #eoin mcgonigal #idk what this is #my laptop is also dying and i have to get a new one #shit week all around i'd say but these three are in my head constantly

26 notes · View notes

scotianostra · 9 months ago

Text

The Scottish actor David McCallum was born on 19th September 1933.

Born as David Keith McCallum, Jr in Maryhill, Glasgow, the second of two sons of Dorothy Dorman, a cellist, and orchestral violinist David McCallum Sr. When he was three, his family moved to London for his father to play as concertmaster in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Early in the Second World War, he was evacuated back to Scotland, where he lived with his mother at Gartocharn by Loch Lomond.

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.In 1946 he began doing boy voices for the BBC radio repertory company. 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. He left school at age 18 and was conscripted, joining the 3rd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, which was seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force.In March 1954 he was promoted to Lieutenant. After leaving the army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (also in London), where Joan Collins was a classmate.

David McCallum’s acting career has spanned six decades; however, these days he is best known for his starring role on the police procedural NCIS as medical examiner as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. I first really remember McCallum for his role in another US show, The Invisible Man which ran for 13 episodes in the 70’s. McCallum by then was a veteran of many TV and Film roles, starting in the 50’s including Our Mutual Friend and The Eustace Diamonds, in the 60’s he was in several ITV Playhouse shows before moving across the Atlantic to take roles in The Outer Limits and his big break as Illya Kuryakin in several incantations of The Man from Uncle.

His most notable films were The Greatest Story Ever Told as Judas Iscariot and of course Ashley-Pitt ‘Dispersal’ in The Great Escape.

As well as the aforementioned Invisible Man in the 70’s he took time to pop back over to our shores to star in two quality series, as Flt. Lt. Simon Carter in Colditz and Alan Breck Stewart in an adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Kidnapped.

The 80’s saw him team up with the lovely Joanna Lumley in Sapphire & Steel and several guest roles in the likes of The A Team, Hart to Hart and Murder, She Wrote as well as a one off reprise of Illya in the TV movie The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair.

The 90’s saw David in Cluedo and Trainer on our TV screens over here and American science-fiction series VR-5 in the states..

During the last 20 years or so he has been in the kids TV show, Ben 10: Omniverse as the voice of Professor Paradox and of course Donald Horatio “Ducky” Mallard in a remarkable 436 episodes of the popular NCIS.

David has been married twice. He married his first wife Jill Ireland in 1957. They met on the set of the movie Hell Drivers. Together, they had two sons and a daughter, Paul, Jason and Valentine, with Jason being the only one who was adopted. In 1963, David introduced Jill to his co-star on The Great Escape, Charles Bronson, and she left David and married Charles in 1968. In 1967,

David McCallum passed away aged 90 on September 23rd last year, he is survived by his wife of 56 years, Katherine McCallum, his sons Paul McCallum, Valentine McCallum and Peter McCallum, his daughter Sophie McCallum and his eight grandchildren. NCIS paid tribute to him in an episode called The Stories We Leave Behind when the tagents find comfort in working on one of his unfinished cases. The episode features clips from several old shows.

#scotland #scottish #history #actor

34 notes · View notes

kwebtv · 2 months ago

Text

TV Guide - April 17 - 23, 1965

Robert Francis Vaughn (November 22, 1932 – November 11, 2016) Actor noted for his stage, film and television work. His best-known TV roles include suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s series The Protectors; and formidable General Hunt Stockwell in the 5th season of the 1980s series The A-Team.

As grifter and card sharp Albert Stroller, Vaughn appeared in all but one of the 48 episodes of the British television drama series Hustle (2004–2012). From January to February 2012, he appeared in the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street as Milton Fanshaw, a love interest for Sylvia Goodwin, played by veteran English actress Stephanie Cole. He also starred in two seasons of the British detective series The Protectors in the early 1970s.

From the 1950′s through 2012 he guest starred in numerous television series. (Wikipedia)

David Keith McCallum Jr. (September 19, 1933 – September 25, 2023) Film and television actor and musician. 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. His other notable television roles include Carter in Colditz (1972–1974) and Steel in Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982). 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. On film, McCallum notably appeared in The Great Escape (1963).

Other television roles included two appearances on The Outer Limits and a guest appearance on Perry Mason in 1964 as defendant Phillipe Bertain in “The Case of the Fifty Millionth Frenchman”. (Wikipedia)

#TV Guide #TV #1965 #Robert Vaughn #David McCallum #The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

10 notes · View notes

lurking-latinist · 2 years ago

Text

sometimes I get so tangled up in the confusing bits of Zagreus I forget about the straight up quotable bits. Charley describing how the Doctor knows things:

CHARLEY: Because he's read a lot? Oh, he's been everywhere, done everything. You can't take him to parties, it's name-drop hell. Rasputin, you say? I knew the Rasputin, the Tsarina too. Played her at tiddlywinks, don't you know. It's so hideously embarrassing. People think he's escaped from somewhere. Thing is, he usually has. Phobos Penitentiary, Devil's Island, Colditz Castle.

#they're so married #doctor who #big finish #charley pollard #eighth doctor

109 notes · View notes

mercurygray · 2 years ago

Text

Currently Reading - November 2023

Gosh, it's been a little while since I did one of these!

The Year of Peril: America in 1942 - Tracey Campbell . Found this one at the library booksale just after I finished the 1942 podcast series. The book is excellent so far and really flipping some interesting issues over.

Just Finished Reading:

Millions Like Us: Women's Lives during the Second World War by Virgina Nicolson - This was excellent and I strongly recommend it. I got a lot of inspiration for the end of TDS in it and there's a lot of material that I think will come in handy for MOTA.

Sisters in Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story, by Nicola Tyrer - Another super excellent book that filled in a serious knowledge gap I had about British nursing. Might come in handy for future SAS:RH productions.

An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War I by Chris Dubbs - This was an impulse purchase on thriftbooks and was very interesting.

The Call of the Wrens, by Jenni Walsh. Fiction. Glad this was only a library book - it was just okay. I'm not a big fan of time jumps as a narrative device - it feels thin.

Cassiel's Servant, by Jacqueline Carey. Fiction. It was really fun to go back to Terre D'Ange for this one, and interesting to see Joscelin's side of things. Realized Joscelin may be why/how I write Dick the way I do.

Ashes under water : the SS Eastland and the shipwreck that shook America, by Michael McCarthy. This was a book club pick that I ended up not being able to join discussion on. A really interesting story, if you're into maritime disasters.

Prisoners of the castle : an epic story of survival and escape from Colditz, the Nazis' fortress prison, by Ben Macintyre. This was on the shelf at the library and I was reading mostly for mentions of David Stirling. Still - very interesting, especially when paired with...

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat, by Giles Milton. This book was fascinating. A lot of backstory behind the stuff that made the war work.

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. A book club pick that I'm really glad I read.

Just Finished Watching:

Our Miracle Years (Unsere wunderbaren Jahre, Das Erste/PBS) - follows the life of one family in the post-war period. Some good food for thought here.

A Place to Call Home, Season 1 (Foxtel/ Hoopla) - More post-war, this time in Australia, which I started just as something to watch and am now very embroiled in. (Fair warning, this show contains conversation therapy, a miscarriage, and antisemitism, and may probably be triggering for some.)

World On Fire, Season 2 (BBC/PBS) - I came, I brought my Passport subscription, I tried...and after all six episodes I still don't like this show. I don't feel like we spend enough time with any of the characters to really appreciate them. It feels like everyone's there to make a point.

Outlander Season 7 (STARZ) - This was just fun. I'm not a huge fan of the books, but the TV series is really enjoyable for me.

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) - This has been on my list for a while and it popped up recently on Hoopla. I like Peck's nervousness in the role.

Dalgliesh, Season 2 (Acorn/Hoopla) - Bertie Carvel continues to do great in this role. I kind of wish there was a crossover involving him and Morse.

To Walk Invisible (BBC/ PBS)- It was really fun to watch this back to back with Emily.

Emily (2022) - Getting two mostly recent takes on the Bronte sisters so close together was really interesting.

Farewell My Queen (2012) - watched this while on vacation in Williamsburg. A nice 18th century drama.

#currently reading

16 notes · View notes

mydaddywiki · 2 years ago

Text

David McCallum

Physique: Average Build Height: 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)

David Keith McCallum Jr. (19 September 1933 – 25 September 2023) was a Scottish actor and musician. 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. His other notable television roles include Carter in Colditz (1972–1974) and Steel in Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982). 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. On film, McCallum notably appeared in The Great Escape (1963). McCallum died at the age of 90.

The Glasgow, Scotland native who became a teen heartthrob in the hit series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in the 1960s and was the eccentric medical examiner in the popular NCIS 40 years later, was one of the best looking men that has ever been an actor. So much so that when Ziva left the show, he's the only reason I continued watching NCIS anymore. Hell… I'd do David and Coté de Pablo. Don't label me.

Well, lets see. Of course he was married to a former model (of course he's banging a model), for 56 years. Together they had a son and daughter. He also had three sons from a previous marriage. McCallum played the oboe, recorded four albums, published a crime novel and was naturalized as a United States citizen in 1999. I would have loved to naturalize him to man on man sex. There isn't much else I can say about him. He was lovely looking and I'd love to have fucked him.

#David McCallum #mydaddywiki actors

20 notes · View notes

ncisfranchise-source · 2 years ago

Text

1957 was a big year for David McCallum, the respected Glasgow-born actor known for “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Great Escape” and his 20-year run on “NCIS” as quirky pathologist Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard.

From the Oct. 23, 1957, edition of weekly Variety

The actor, who died Sept. 25 at the age of 90, logged six mentions in Variety that year, starting with the March 20 edition of weekly that featured him in the cast list of a review of the British “crimer meller” (aka crime melodrama) “The Secret Place.” From then on, McCallum was a staple in our pages, limning movies, TV shows, legit stages in the U.S. and U.K. He never stopped working.

Wedding announcement for David McCallum and Jill Ireland from the May 22, 1957, edition of weekly Variety

1957 was also the year McCallum married actor Jill Ireland in London, an event commemorated with a wedding announcement in the May 22, 1957, edition of weekly.

Five months later, McCallum got his first detailed mention in a review of British drama “Robbery Under Arms,” a Rank film production also starring Peter Finch, Ronald Lewis and Ireland. McCallum was one half of a pair of brothers who get swept into a life of crime, and he was singled out in our review. “Good opportunities are given to the brothers, Lewis and McCallum. The latter, in the more subtle part, enhances his rising reputation.”

Growing up in that era of Britain, it’s no surprise that McCallum was a Rank regular. But by the early 1960s, McCallum’s star climbed as he landed a supporting role in the 1963 Steve McQueen hit “The Great Escape.” (Scandal ensued, however, when Ireland and “Great Escape” co-star Charles Bronson began an affair on the set. Bronson and Ireland were married from 1968 until her death from breast cancer in 1990.)

Congrats ad saluting 1966 Golden Globe Award winners from the Feb. 14, 1966, edition of Daily Variety

Soon after “The Great Escape,” McCallum relocated to swinging Hollywood, co-starring with Robert Vaughn in the spy-fi comedy series “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” for four seasons. MGM Television produced the NBC series that was inspired by the success of the James Bond film franchise. McCallum earned back-to-back Emmy nominations in 1965 and 1966 for the show, and the series nabbed the Golden Globe Award in 1966 for Most Popular TV Show.

From the June 24, 1968, edition of Daily Variety

MGM kept McCallum busy in features during his “Man From U.N.C.L.E” hiatus. In 1967 he starred in the globe-trotting movie comedy “Three Bites of the Apple” with Harvey Korman, Sylvia Koscina and Tammy Grimes. “Box office is the name of the game … so let yourself go with McCallum,” MGM exhorted in an ad in the Feb. 8, 1967, edition of weekly Variety for “Three Bites.”

Still, he never strayed too far from the boards. “Dave McCallum” landed prime page-one placement in the June 24, 1968, edition of Daily Variety when he was set to star in the Broadway adaptation of the hit London tuner “The Flip Side,” which opened Oct. 10 on the Main Stem and closed Oct. 12.

McCallum juggled all manner of film, TV and stage projects in the 1970s and ’80s. In the early 1970s he co-starred with Robert Wagner in the British drama series “Colditz” — a bit of foreshadowing of things to come decades later when Wagner joined the cast of “NCIS.”

From the Nov. 16, 1972, edition of Daily Variety

And who says reboots and remakes are a recent phenomenon? Fifteen years after the original series ended, CBS reunited Vaughn and McCallum for a “The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.” TV movie that had its charms, according to our review from the April 7, 1983, edition of Daily Variety: “Robert Vaughn and David McCallum resume their spy-snooping as slickly as though they never left,” our critic wrote.

From the Nov. 29, 1982, edition of Daily Variety

Any actor fortunate enough to have a long career will inevitably deal with some downturns. McCallum did a fair amount of low-profile indie and Euro-financed movies in the 1990s. After he landed the “NCIS” gig in 2003, he mostly stuck to moonlighting with voice work in animated series and video games.

In 2012, Variety paid tribute to “NCIS” as it reached its 200 episode milestone – a rare achievement for series and one that has become even more unusual in contemporary times.

From the Feb. 7, 2012, edition of Daily Variety

From the Sept. 22, 2003, edition of Daily Variety

We couldn’t have known it back then, but “NCIS” and McCallum were destined to deliver more than 250 more episodes (not to mention two more spinoffs) during his stint on the show, which is heading into Season 21, although the premiere date is still in flux after production was delayed by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes).

The show clearly won’t be the same without his authoritative and avuncular presence. As we wrote in our Sept. 22, 2003, review of the pilot for the series originally titled “Navy NCIS,” McCallum’s character was key to adding “scientific insight and personality quicks aplenty” to the ensembler.

Rest in peace, Ducky.

#ncis #the man from uncle #the great escape

24 notes · View notes

gone2soon-rip · 2 years ago

Text

DAVID McCALLUM (1933-Died September 25th 2023,at 90).Scottish actor and musician.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. His other notable television roles include Carter in Colditz (1972–1974) and Steel in Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982). 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. On film, McCallum notably appeared in The Great Escape (1963). David McCallum - Wikipedia

#David McCallum #Scottish Actors #British Actors #Actors #The Man From U.N.C.L.E.#NCIS #Sapphire & Steel #Dr Donald 'Ducky' Mallard #Notable Deaths in September 2023 #Notable Deaths in 2023

25 notes · View notes

vintagetvstars · 10 months ago

Text

David McCallum Vs. David Selby

Propaganda

David McCallum - (The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Colditz, The Outer Limits) - He became one of the hottest leading men of 1960s tv with The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and McCallum received more fan mail than any other actor in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's history, including such popular MGM movie stars as Clark Gable and Elvis Presley. He turned his Russian character from side-kick to co-star in one season during the height of the cold war. Artists wrote hit camp songs about his character like "Love Ya, Illya"

David Selby - (Dark Shadows, Falcon Crest) - VERY handsome. 16 magazine had articles about him for a reason. Does such a good job as Quentin, every moment he's onscreen is a delight. He's funny, he's evil, he's Going Thru It, he's being stupid, WHATEVER it is he's great at it. So tall in the 1960s you can clearly see him having to duck through some doorways onscreen, and still pretty darn tall as an old man. (I actually just met him recently and got his autograph, he was very nice!) If tumblr was around in the 1960s he would have been prime tumblr sexyman material.

Master Poll List | How to submit propaganda | What is vintage? (FAQ)

Additional propaganda below the cut

David McCallum:

Everyone knows him as Ducky from NCIS or Ashley Pitt from The Great Escape, but David McCallum was also the original Man From UNCLE, for which role he recieved record setting amounts of fan mail. Was considered to play the Doctor. Charles Bronson stole his first wife, but his second marriage lasted over 55 years, until his death, so who's the winner here.

He became an expert on forensics during his time with JAG/NCIS and attended multiple medical examiner conventions for research.

youtube

A classically trained musician, he created several instrumental albums in the 60's his biggest hit is a cover of The Edge which has appeared in movies and video games and sampled by rap artists.

David Selby:

Dark Shadows was a daily soap opera in the 60's and that means that unless an actor swore or something truly heinous happened all mistakes are just there for our viewing pleasure.

Here have this video of his character and another dude right after trying to summon the devil

youtube

I love David Selby and I love David Selby as Quentin Collins (all of them). He plays the tragic, disaster, self-absorbed "hero" so well and is one of the original wet cat men of TV.

Also this incredibly gay scene of those two characters

TW: Gypsy Slur

youtube

#vintage tv stars poll #tv men 1 #david mccallum #david selby #Youtube

90 notes · View notes

ecoustsaintmein · 2 months ago

Text

another fic series? from me?

so apart from my recent delve into bill x eoin +/- paddy, i also have been brainrotting about augustin x eoin x paddy, in case you missed it:

intimate; unidentifiable, rating M -

folie à trois, rating E -

oh, and paddy is so good for him. and it's madness, how he wants to be good for paddy, and eoin, too. (or, just a whole fic of augustin, eoin and paddy fucking each others' brains out, in a threesome. as i've said. there's no plot here. just pure filth.) - can also be read as a missing scene for intimate; unidentifiable.

#sas rogue heroes #augustin jordan #paddy mayne #eoin mcgonigal #sas rh fic

9 notes · View notes

scotianostra · 2 years ago

Text

Happy 90th Birthday Scottish actor David McCallum.

Born as David Keith McCallum, Jr on this day 19933 in Maryhill, Glasgow, the second of two sons of Dorothy Dorman, a cellist, and orchestral violinist David McCallum Sr. When he was three, his family moved to London for his father to play as concertmaster in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Early in the Second World War, he was evacuated back to Scotland, where he lived with his mother at Gartocharn by Loch Lomond.

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.In 1946 he began doing boy voices for the BBC radio repertory company. 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. He left school at age 18 and was conscripted, joining the 3rd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, which was seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force.In March 1954 he was promoted to Lieutenant. After leaving the army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (also in London), where Joan Collins was a classmate.

David McCallum’s acting career has spanned six decades; however, these days he is best known for his starring role on the police procedural NCIS as medical examiner as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. I first really remember McCallum for his role in another US show, The Invisible Man which ran for 13 episodes in the 70's. McCallum by then was a veteran of many TV and Film roles, starting in the 50's including Our Mutual Friend and The Eustace Diamonds, in the 60's he was in several ITV Playhouse shows before moving across the Atlantic to take roles in The Outer Limits and his big break as Illya Kuryakin in several incantations of The Man from Uncle.

His most notable films were The Greatest Story Ever Told as

Judas Iscariot and of course Ashley-Pitt 'Dispersal' in The Great Escape.

As well as the aforementioned Invisible Man in the 70's he took time to pop back over to our shores to star in two quality series, as Flt. Lt. Simon Carter in Colditz and Alan Breck Stewart in an adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson's, Kidnapped.

The 80's saw him team up with the lovely Joanna Lumley in Sapphire & Steel and several guest roles in the likes of The A Team, Hart to Hart and Murder, She Wrote as well as a one off reprise of Illya in the TV movie The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair.

The 90's saw David in Cluedo and Trainer on our TV screens over here and American science-fiction series VR-5 in the states..

During the last 20 years or so he has been in the kids TV show, Ben 10: Omniverse as the voice of Professor Paradox and of course Donald Horatio "Ducky" Mallard in over 350 episodes of the popular NCIS.

In NCIS since 2018, Ducky, played by McCallum, has appeared in fewer episodes. avid McCallum explained that appearing in fewer episodes will allow him to see more of his family, which includes his wife, children, six grandsons, and their cat, Nickie. According to IMDB he has chalked up an amazing 457 appearances in the show, morethan anyother character in the series.

#scotland #scottish #actor #television #cinema #happy birthday #NCIS #ducky mallard

144 notes · View notes

maximumwobblerbanditdonut · 2 years ago

Text

Remembering David McCallum- Scottish actor and musician.

David McCallum, who became a heartthrob in the hit series ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,’ Dies at 90 💔 So sad a fine actor a great talent and a true gentleman.

An experienced character actor, he found fame in the 1960s as the enigmatic Illya Kuryakin. The British actor who played the mysterious secret agent Illya Kuryakin alongside Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo in the 1960s hit spy drama The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a secret international counterespionage and law-enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement). The series premiered on September 22, 1964, and completed its run on January 15, 1968. The role turned the actor into a global sex symbol.

The success of the James Bond books and films had set off a chain reaction, with secret agents proliferating on both large and small screens. Indeed, Bond creator Ian Fleming contributed some ideas when the series was being developed, according to Jon Heitland’s book, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of a Television Classic (special introduction by Robert Vaughn)

David McCallum took his place among one of the most iconic casts Hollywood ever assembled, nothing in the film’s title, The Great Escape, He was playing naval officer Eric Ashley-Pitt in the 1963 Second World War epic about the mass escape of British and Commonwealth POWs from German Stalag Luft III camp, through another POW turn in Colditz (1972-1974).

David McCallum with Steve McQueen on the set of the WWII epic. The Great Escape brought him to a US audiences. (Image: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

In 1975, he had the title role in a short-lived science fiction series, “The Invisible Man,” and from 1979 to 1982 he played Steel in a British sci-if chiller “Sapphire and Steel” (1979-1982). Over the years, he also appeared in guest shots in many TV shows, including “Murder, She Wrote” and “Sex and the City, a romantic comedy-drama television series filmed in New York.

Later, in the 2000s as an eccentric medical examiner on “N.C.I.S.” he reached a new audience as Dr Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the medical examiner in US TV drama NCIS. McCallum was known for playing a pathologist on the hit CBS TV programme NCIS, which went on to generate several spinoff series, for twenty years. NCIS is the third-longest-running scripted, non-animated primetime television series in the U.S that is currently on air.

He was a true Renaissance man — he was fascinated by science and culture and would turn those passions into knowledge. For example, he was capable of conducting a symphony orchestra and (if needed) could perform an autopsy, based on his decades-long studies for his role on NCIS.

The Scottish-born actor died in New York on Monday 25th September 2023. He lived in Manhattan. David Keith McCallum was born on 19th September 1933 in the Maryhill (Scots: Maryhull - Scottish Gaelic: Cnoc Màiri) area of Glasgow, to a father who was the first violinist for the London Philharmonic and a mother who was a cellist.

David won a scholarship to the University College School in north London and took up the oboe with a view to a classical music career. Thus he originally pursued a career in music, training on the oboe and studying for a time at the Royal Academy of Music, though he soon left and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After RADA he started performing with repertory theatre companies.

David McCallum was drafted into the British military in 1951 and served two years, including 10 months in what was a small-arms expert. Not long after his discharge, he signed with the Rank Organization, a British production company, and began acting both in movies and on television.

David McCallum a classically trained musician, created arrangements of popular songs of the day alongside a few original pieces and made four albums with forward-thinking producer and composer David Axelrod. Those groovy productions have been sampled a lot by trip-hop artists and more. In particular, “The Edge” from 1967’s

“The Edge” from 1967’s Music: For those who might have heard this song sampled elsewhere, you could have heard it in various places. From Masta Ace (“No Regrets”) to John Legend (“Actions”) his original was used in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, the 2017 film starring Ansel Elgort.

Check out the video below and listen for that familiar intro:

youtube

David McCallum - From The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to NCIS, and all performances in between, he was a multifaceted talent during 7 decades and 100 films and TV shows a True Legend.

R.I.P David 💔

1933-2023

#DavidMcCallum #Scottishactor #Britishactor #U.N.C.L.E. #IllyaKuryakin #TheGreatEscape #navalofficer #EricAshley #NCIS #secretagent #Edge #music #Ducky #DoctorMallard #actor #talent #gentleman #Legend #ripdavidmccallum

17 notes · View notes