In 1964, when I was recovering from my first heart surgery, adapting to having a cardiac pacemaker, and dealing with the additional trauma of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, I developed a huge crush on the Man from U.N.C.L.E., which was a very welcome distraction. While my friends in Junior High School were happily crushing on David McCallum, who played Illya Kuyakin on the show, my crush was Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo.
As I’ve been recovering from getting COVID for my 70th birthday, I’ve been revisiting that crush by watching the first season of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I continue to crush on so many things about that show — the great scripts (one written by Robert Towne, the future screenwriter of Chinatown), the amazing music (I spent many happy hours figuring out and playing the Man from U.N.C.L.E. music on the family piano), the direction (often by a young Richard Donner, described as “one of Hollywood’s most reliable makers of action blockbusters”), and the wonderful, playful chemistry between my crush Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin.
So it felt like a risk when I ordered the late Robert Vaughn’s autobiography, A Fortunate Life — how would it affect my still enjoyable crush if he turned out to be somebody I wouldn’t like in real life? Well, my crush is secure. Robert Vaughn was smart, witty, loyal to his many friends, and a brave advocate for his beliefs, which included a very early and unpopular opposition to the Vietnam war. I remember my 8th grade English teacher (whom I definitely did not have a crush on) asking us to bring in a picture of our favorite celebrity and when she saw my photo of Robert Vaughn, she told the whole class that he was an awful “Vietnick.” That didn’t crush my crush, it just made me more curious about what was really going on in that war.
Here’s my old crush (and other crushes) on The Dating Game …
https://fb.watch/iABYOGLa53/?mibextid=v7YzmG
… and here’s the YouTube link to him crushing it in a debate about the Vietnam War with William F. Buckley on Firing Line.
.Do you see crushes in my images for today?
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Thanks to all who helped me create this “crushes” post, including YOU!
