David McCallum

David McCallum, the American actor who gained fame playing Russian agent Illya Kuryakin on The Man From U.N.C.L.E  in the '60's, and found fame again on NCIS this century, has died. He was 90.

Buckle your seatbelts folks because this is dorky as heck, but as a kid around middle school or freshman year of high school I started watching The Man From U.N.C.L.E in reruns. At the time for whatever reason I wasn't interested in college or in grades at all, although I believe that was probably just a spell I would have grown out of on my own. 

Enter that TV show. Within a very short time I became obsessed with the idea of becoming a secret agent. I even went so far in those pre-internet days as to call the library's Ready Reference line and ask if U.N.C.L.E was a real agency. As I recall they couldn't give me a definitive answer (it's fictional) but all the same I figured at the very least I would need a college degree and good grades to be qualified for the job.

So in a way, David McCallum greatly influenced my future LOL.

RiP