Browse: Home / More Than a Modicum of Serendipity: Robert Vaughn, 1932-2016

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

More Than a Modicum of Serendipity: Robert Vaughn, 1932-2016

Posted By Gillianren on November 11, 2016 in News | 10 Responses

I’d been going back and forth about writing about Leonard Cohen last night, because I was tired and am still heart-sore. And then I woke up this morning, and Robert Vaughn had died. Thanks, 2016; we all needed that.

Robert Vaughn was the last of the Magnificent Seven. He was Napoleon Solo. He played everyone from Hitler to Truman. And mostly, I think, what people will remember is that deep, mellifluous voice—a bad week for voices, clearly—that oozed charm and, when he chose, menace.

I’ll be honest; I thought for some reason that he’d died a few years ago and was taken aback at the tributes that began to pop up on Facebook. (Which is, as for so many of us, how I tend to find out that people have died.) There aren’t as many of them as there are for Cohen, both because he was better known and because this is a week of mourning fatigue, I think, and the sorrow we’d have for someone who lived in American pop culture for decades was already used up.

But he will remain in memory, I think, even if people don’t quite notice for a while that he’s gone. He was so good at putting in just that hint of suave villainy that it’s perhaps ironic that he’s best known for a couple of heroes. I think I will remember him best for the episode of Law & Order where he’s basically throwing a mentally ill grandson under the bus to keep from revealing his own mental illness. The character is so accustomed to the power that he wields that it’s more important than anything, which may be another symptom of his illness.

Don’t get me wrong; I have seen some of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., but not much and relatively recently. I suspect that’s more how he’s stuck in my mother’s mind, though she is in turn slightly too old for me to assume she’d gotten into it; she was twenty when it aired. But I am left now with a slight regret that he never appeared on Leverage, a show I think he would have been well suited for, and I cannot fathom why he never made a guest appearance on NCIS, all things considered.

I know, I’m focusing more on the TV stuff. But I’ve never seen The Young Philadelphians, the film for which he picked up his Oscar nomination. He lost to Hugh Griffiths, the Welsh guy who played an Arab sheik in Ben-Hur. I do find it interesting that he was actually approached by the California Democratic Party to run against Ronald Reagan for governor, before even Gregory Peck. He turned down the opportunity. One wonders how history might have been different had he run and won.

Posted in News | Tagged obituary, Robert Vaughn

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

Steve Morse, 1948-2024A show wasn’t a show until we saw you there: Steve Morse, 1948-2024 (by Miller)→

Invulnerable to ploys by music scene weasels: Steve Albini, 1962-2024 (by Miller)→

Such a great movie, such great performancesMake Sure It Flourishes: Andre Braugher, 1962-2023→

Also a demon poker playerI Gravitate Towards Sort of Broken Characters Who Try to Be Better People: Matthew Perry, 1969-2023→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38383 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    30718 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30340 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27650 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23340 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!