Solo, Farewell, Auf Weidersein, Good Night

Or

Say U.N.C.L.E.

(Props to Monty)

 

Or

Dirt Napoleon

 

Or

Battling Beyond the Stars

(Meritorious mention for Don)

Robert Vaughn, who played a samurai in the Old West and in space, has died of leukemia at the age of 83. The last surviving member of The Magnificent Seven, Vaughn played Lee, the cowardly mercenary, then came back in essentially the same role for Battle Beyond the Stars, Roger Corman’s update on The Seven Samurai theme. Apparently he wasn’t available for A Bug’s Life. Vaughn’s star-making turn was the Symbol Maker’s son in Teenage Caveman, a Roger Corman cheapie with a twist ending that it was earth all along that eventually made fine MST3K fodder. He parlayed that into a role as an injured war vet wrongfully accused of murder in the melodramatic twaddle The Young Philadelphians, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination in 1960. He starred as suave spy Napoleon Solo in the tongue-in-cheek spy caper series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. And after that, he settled into a long career of shadowy intimidating authority figures: billionaire Ross Webster in the franchise-destroying Superman III; crooked politician Walter Chalmers in Bullitt; billionaire king maker Carl Anderton on Law & Order, who decides to cut off Adam Schiff’s campaign funds; White House Chief of Staff Gordon Cain who decides re-election is more important than aliens and heroic astronauts in another MST3Ked schlocker Hanger 18; and General Hunt Stockwell, the man who did what Col. Decker couldn’t – capture the A-Team and force them to work for him in the shark jumping final season.