LPO leader’s son, RIP
RIPThe actor David McCallum, renowned for his secret agent role in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., has died in New York, aged 90.
He grew up in London as the son of the leader of the London Philharmonic and his wife Dorothy Dorman, a cellist. His first job was as an ASM at Glyndebourne.
McCallum composed music for four Capitol Records albums and wrote a crime novel.
He was a multi-talented man who lead a long and eventuful life (Charles Bronson stole his wife when they were shooting The Great Escape), and he worked right up until the end. R.I.P. David McCallum.
He was also leader for the ( now) Royal Scottish National Orchestra ( under Barbirolli) and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, so not just ‘ LPO leader’
A very capable oboist lost to the acting profession! When his father led for Mantovani he was introduced with the words “We can afford the father but not the son” so David’s change of career was a wise move! RIP.
the first love of my teenage life. Vale Illya Kuryakin.
You’re in good company there! And whenever I saw him later, the feeling returned. A gorgeous man, and a real talent. RIP, Sir.
And for us boys at the time, an immediate change in preference for having a haircut more like Illya Kuyakin’s rather than the Beatles’s. Our parents and barbers were unhappy either way. He even caused a brief craze for us talking in fake Russian accents rather than fake British accents.
And as we sadly learned, it took more than the haircut to win the attentions of the Susan Bradleys of the world. Sigh.
It took me a long time to really realise that not everyone with lovely floppy blond hair was as nice as Illya. We live and learn!
First: what’s an ASM?
Second: his performance in an Outer Limits episode, The Sixth Finger, terrified me as a kid some 60 years ago. I still remember him with that giant head playing Bach on the piano. So Klemperer wasn’t the only pro musician with a talented kid in Hollywood. RIP.
ASM = Assistant Stage Manager…
Assistant stage manager.
Assistant Stage Manager.
Karlheinz Böhm, son of Karl Böhm, was another busy actor, most notoriously in Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom.”
That’s gotta include Felix Slatkin, for one.
Another childhood icon disappears. RIP and thank you for the memories.
I once met a luthier, Richard Moakes, who had bought McCallum’s Vuillaume violin at auction. He described how he had got it for a bargain price as McCallum had presented it at auction without it’s certificate.
McCallum found the certificate after it had sold but must have regretted not finding it earlier – it would have fetched considerably more as an authenticated JB Vuillaume.
A brilliant actor…