There comes a time in every avid film and TV viewer’s life when they lose someone who they grew up watching, and if that person was someone like David McCullum or Michael Gambon, then it's hard to bounce back from the loss since most of their work was inspiring, to say the least. Sadly, in the last 10 days, the two prominent showbiz personalities passed away — the former at 90, the latter at 82 — leaving a lasting legacy for those who want to emulate them.
The Scottish actor David McCullum was the first to go on September 25, 2023. A more popular actor than musician, he worked in films that went on to attain cult status in the 1960s while he became a heartthrob due to his performance in The Man from U.N.C.L.E (TMFU), a big-budget TV show, and later made a resurgence as a character actor. The films that made him popular include The Great Escape and The Greatest Story Ever Told whereas it was the 1960s hit TV show TMFU that made him the darling of the audience.
His character Ilya Kuryakin wasn’t supposed to be a series regular but after watching him complement his co-star Robert Vaughn, the producers decided to make him the Russian partner, a decision that greatly helped in promoting the show. From England to America, he was the apple of every girl’s (and boy’s) eye because he embodied grace and perfection. With blond hair and rockstar looks he was the alter ego to Vaughn’s cool and suave Napoleon Solo and together they ruled the screens and some of their 'affairs' (as the episodes were known) were even screened as films in cinemas.
The two actors not only returned for a TV reunion in the 80s but also reunited in one of the fifth season episodes of The A-Team, where Robert Vaughn was a series regular in the final season. Despite performing a once-in-a-lifetime type character, David continued to search for different roles in order to prove his worth as an actor, and that took him to Hollywood where he was welcomed with open arms.
Since he was a gifted actor who could play any character, he was cast as Judas in The Greatest Story Ever Told, besides playing an Air Force pilot in The Mosquito Squadron, and even went to the dark side as the villain Mobius in the short-lived series Team Knight Rider. Not many remember that he even provided the vocals for the character of Alfred Pennyworth in a few Batman animated flicks, making him part of the Batmanverse as well.
Pathbreaking sci-fi shows like The Invisible Man and Sapphire and Steel kept him busy between The Man from U.N.C.L.E and NCIS. Though short-lived — the former lasted one season, the latter three — they kept him in the eyes of the public who had no idea that he was to make a comeback in their lives and become their number one medical examiner. That remarkable comeback took place in 2003 when he first appeared as Dr Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard in the season 8 episode of JAG, which also introduced Mark Harmon as Special Agent Gibbs.
The character became a series regular when JAG spin-off NCIS was ordered and appeared regularly in the first 16 seasons and as a recurring character in the next four. He was scheduled to appear in the upcoming 21st season of the series but his death, six days after his 90th birthday put an end to his return
What made Ducky a fan favorite was his ability to impart knowledge to all those who came to him for advice, help, or just chit-chat. As the world’s only medical examiner who spoke to his deceased patients while they were on an operating table in his mortuary, and also always had a story related to the case. When asked about this strange hobby, he would say that "their bodies tell me a great deal; it helps to reciprocate", which sort of makes sense.
For 20 years he oversaw the change of agents and finally the change of guards at NCIS and even appeared in one of its spinoff series NCIS: New Orleans. As the only character of the series besides Sean Murray to survive the entirety of the show, it will be interesting to see how the series handles his character's absence and hope that his farewell episode kicks off the season whenever it airs.
Although he shared a lot of similarities with another Donald P. Bellisario creation Jonathan Higgins (from another TV series Magnum PI), he made the character his own by adding his own touch. Like Higgins, he always had a tale up his sleeve but unlike the Magnum PI character, he was also active in the field and many stories revolved just around him in NCIS.
In one of the earlier episodes of NCIS, an agent asked Mark Harmon’s Gibbs about how Ducky looked as a young man, and he replied with "Illya Kuryakin", referring to the very popular Russian U.N.C.L.E agent David McCallum played in the spy series from the 1960s. His popularity rivalled those of the film stars of the day and he was mobbed wherever he went, be it in the States or the United Kingdom.
The reason for his popularity during the 1960s and the 1970s had more to do with his good looks than his acting skills, a fact he accepted gladly because he used his acting prowess in other projects one of which was the Hollywood war flick The Great Escape way back in 1963. While the film gave him a chance to share the screen with superstars such as Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, and even Charles Bronson, it brought an end to his marriage to actress Jill Ireland.
She left him for his co-star Charles Bronson whom they had befriended during the making of the John Sturges classic and he had to wait for a couple of years to find love in his life but when he did, it lasted till death did the part. Despite such setbacks, David McCullum kept marching ahead and went on to appear with Robert Wagner in a short-lived TV series Colditz, something he would do later in NCIS where Wagner played Tony Sr., the father of one of the special agents.
As if his death wasn’t enough, another Hollywood legend Michael Gambon passed away two days after David McCullum. Unlike the Scottish actor, the 82-year-old Gambon peaked in his film and TV career late in life but when he did make a name for himself, he was nothing short of unstoppable.
Despite making his film debut through minor roles in Othello in 1965, and his TV debut as a minor character with the TV show Much Ado About Nothing two years later, he kept horning his craft on stage under the tutelage of Sir Laurence Olivier and made a resurgence in the 1980s as a polished film and TV actor.
It was through the TV series The Singing Detective that he achieved the recognition he deserved and that performance along with the title role of Maigret in the detective series helped him get noticed by Hollywood folks. He went on to play the important role of Thomas Sandefur in Michael Mann's The Insider, was part of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow as Baltus Van Tassel, and even made his presence felt in Robert Altman's Gosford Park, all between 1999 and 2001.
If the first image that comes to mind is of the villain when someone mentions Kevin Costner-Robert Duvall's Western Open Range, then that’s because Gambon’s performance in the film was merciless. It established him as one of the must-cast actors in Hollywood and from there on, he found more work than his predecessors. While Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake continued to add to his fame, it was magic that sealed his fate in a good way.
It was in 2002 that he was called up to replace the recently-deceased Richard Harris as Professor Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. Harris had played the character in the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) before his untimely death in October 2002 which led to Michael Gambon's entry in the franchise which lasted longer than his predecessor.
Gambon portrayed Dumbledore in the remaining six Harry Potter films released between 2004 to 2011 and became a household name because the films were popular among both young and old. However, despite being busy with the Harry Potter franchise, Gambon found time to work on other projects including Robert De Niro's directorial The Good Shepherd, and Denzel Washington starrer The Book of Eli.
However, it was his performance as King George V in the multiple Oscar-winning The King's Speech that took him to unparalleled heights of fame and popularity. He was part of an ensemble cast and came out with flying colours, a trait that he would go on to follow in later years. Be it playing US President Lyndon Johnson in Path to War in 2002 or being part of another ensemble cast movie titled The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou two years later, he always made his presence felt.
After gaining recognition late in life, the actor’s earlier work also became popular and many managed to watch and praise The Beast Must Die, a British werewolf movie he starred in the 70s, and Turtle Diary which came out in the mid-80s, proving that he was not a small-time actor.
He even displayed his acting prowess when he shared the screen with legendary actor Marlon Brando in the apartheid film A Dry White Season in 1989 and displayed the same energy when he and Robin Williams appeared together in Toys three years later, before settling for character roles for the rest of his life.
He used his theatre training and experience when he appeared as Kazran in the famous British series Dr Who and in Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut Quarter in 2012. In his last years, he played the character of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the TV movie Churchill's Secret and appeared as a major character Henry Tyson in the TV series Fortitude, a horror crime drama set on the edge of the Arctic Circle.
He reunited for one last time with his The King's Speech actor Colin Firth in Kingsman: The Golden Circle in 2017 in a minor role before bagging what turned out to be his final role in Judy Garland’s biopic Judy. Gambon played the leading Russian-born British theatrical impresario Bernard Delfont, who mentored the Wizard of Oz actress in her earlier days before taking his final bow, one from which he would never return.
Omair Alavi is a freelance contributor who writes about film, television, and popular culture
All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer