Actor and star of The Man From U.N.C.L.E

Born: November 22, 1932;

Died: November 11, 2016

ROBERT Vaughn, who has died of leukaemia aged 83, was a debonair American actor who became a big star in the 1960s as one of the gunfighters in the classic western The Magnificent Seven and the suave spy Napoleon Solo in the TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E alongside Scottish actor David McCallum as his partner Illya Kuryakin.

Vaughn was also in many other hits in his long career. In the 60s, he was the star of the TV series The Protectors, one of the live action shows made by Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson. He also won an Oscar for The Young Philadelphians in 1959 with Paul Newman, appeared in Bullitt with Steve McQueen and was the senator in the disaster movie The Towering Inferno.

In later years, he also starred as the conman Albert Stroller in the BBC show Hustle from 2004 to 2012 and even appeared in Coronation Street as the wealthy American who wooed cafe owner Roy Cropper's mother Sylvia Goodwin.

Many of his roles were light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek, but at the height of his success Vaughn had two sides to his life: he was an actor in hit television series, but he was also a serious political activist, speaking out against the Vietnam war and campaigning for Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 during his run for the presidency.

Robert Francis Vaughn was born in New York into a theatrical family - his father was a radio actor, his mother performed on Broadway and his grandparents were theatre actors. After his parents divorced, he spent his childhood with his grandparents in Minneapolis where he went to school; he wanted to be an actor from an early age but at first studied journalism at the University of Minnesota.

Later, he transferred to Los Angeles City College to take drama before completing a master’s at LA State College, where his PhD was on the effect of the McCarthy Communist witchhunts on the acting profession. It led to a book Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting.

His acting career began to take off when he was spotted in a college play and signed to a contract with Burt Lancaster's company. However, he was then drafted into the Army and did not make his first movie, No Time to Be Young, until 1957.

His big break was The Young Philadelphians in which he played an alcoholic who is framed for murder and it led the following year to The Magnificent Seven, in which he starred alongside Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner as a dandyish gunfighter who has lost his bottle.

Making the movie, Vaughn recalled in 2005, presented the cast with a vexing problem: there was no script. "We had to improvise everything," he said. "I had to go to the costume department myself and choose the black vest and the black hat." Vaughn was the last surviving member of the main cast.

After the success of The Magnificent Seven, Vaughn moved into television in the role for which he will probably be best remembered: Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The premise was far-fetched but hopeful: a pair of secret agents put aside Cold War differences for a greater good and work together for the mysterious U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) in combatting the international crime syndicate THRUSH.

It was immediate hit when it debuted in 1964 and was a part of a slew of secret agent shows at the time, including Mission: Impossible and Get Smart, and its two stars became cult figures. "Girls age 9 to 12 liked David McCallum because he was so sweet," Vaughn said. "But the old ladies and the 13 to 16-year-olds liked me because I was so detached."

The show aired until early 1968, when sagging ratings brought it to an end. Vaughn, among others, blamed the demise of the show on a shift in direction towards more comedic plots.

"Unfortunately, everyone was excited about the Batman series and the Green Hornet and that comedic approach that they went too far in that direction. It got so lighthearted, it went off the air."

A few years after the end of the series, Vaughn came to Britain to make The Protectors, which centred on three international troubleshooters charged with protecting the innocent. It ran for two series from 1972.

Vaughn was drawn to politics in several of the TV roles he chose. He portrayed Harry S. Truman in The Man from Independence, Woodrow Wilson in Backstairs at the White House and a presidential aide in Washington: Behind Closed Doors, for which he won an Emmy. He also toured in a one-man play F.D.R. about Franklin D. Roosevelt's battles with polio.

Into his later years he continued to appear in films, including two released in 2016 - he The American Side and Gold Star, in which he played a dying 90-year-old father. Vaughn and McCallum also reunited in 1983 for a TV movie, The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. in which the super spies were lured out of retirement to save the world once more.

Vaughn also appeared in eight seasons of Hustle. "I imagined that Napoleon Solo had retired from U.N.C.L.E., whatever U.N.C.L.E. was," Vaughn said of the role. "What could he do now to use his talents and to supplement his government pension? I imagined Stroller as Napoleon Solo, The Later Years."

Vaughn died after a brief battle with acute leukaemia after being treated in hospitals in New York and Connecticut. His manager Matthew Sullivan, who represented him for 30 years, described Vaughn as a wonderful human being.

"He had a blast doing Hustle for the BBC,” said Mr Sullivan. “He loved that show and him and Linda loved living in London, it was one of his greatest joys doing that show. Even at 83, women would still come up to the table to talk to him."

Vaughn is survived by his wife, Linda Staab Vaughn, their son Cassidy and daughter Caitlin.