NEW YORK -- Robert Vaughn, the debonair, Oscar-nominated actor whose many film roles were eclipsed by his turn in television's The Man From U.N.C.L.E., has died. He was 83.
Vaughn died Friday morning after a brief battle with acute leukemia, said his manager, Matthew Sullivan.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was an immediate hit when it debuted on NBC in 1964. Vaughn's urbane superspy Napoleon Solo teamed with Scottish actor David McCallum's Illya Kuryakin, a soft-spoken, Russian-born agent.
The pair, who had put aside Cold War differences for a greater good, worked together each week for the mysterious U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) in combating the international crime syndicate THRUSH.
The show aired until early 1968, when sagging ratings brought it to an end.
Vaughn and McCallum reunited in 1983 for a TV movie, The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. in which the superspies were lured out of retirement to save the world once more.
In recent years, Vaughn had starred for eight seasons on the British crime-caper series Hustle, playing Albert Stroller, the lone Yank in a band of London-based con artists.
Before U.N.C.L.E. Vaughn made his mark in movies, earning an Oscar nomination in 1959 for his supporting role in The Young Philadelphians, in which he played a wounded war veteran accused of murder.
The following year, he appeared as a gunfighter who had lost his nerve in The Magnificent Seven.
Robert Francis Vaughn was born into a theatrical family Nov. 22, 1932, in New York City. His father was a radio actor, his mother performed on Broadway, and his grandparents acted in theater.
Metro on 11/13/2016