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David
McCallum winked at us, when we wondered how he got away with that opening scene
in Hullabaloo where he was hanging way above the stage. “They (MGM) didn’t
know about it,” he laughed. “Afterwards, they said to me ‘Are
you crazy or something?’ And how about those barrels? (He laughed heartily.)
If I missed jumping over one of them I guess I could have broken a leg.”
We agreed with him—but he just thought it was hilarious!
“They keep telling me here (at MGM), ‘What do you think we have stunt men for?’ But I think that’s the fun—being able to do all these things. That’s the fun in being an actor.
“The other day Normal (Felton, the TV boss at the studio) saw the rushes in which I’m dragged under a tractor. When he found out I did the scene, he came rushing down to the set!”
At this point, David started rushing around the set—because Norman had come down again to visit. He made a fake pass around him, and returned to the dressing room, where he quietly set about signing autographs for—the children of the men who were working on this specific segment of the show!
He had among the photographs, a picture of the teen-age daughter of L.A. disc jockey Dick Whittinghill. We wondered why. “Jill’s going to paint her,” he said. “She has such great sad eyes, Jill wanted to paint her. You know, I think one of these days she’s going to convert our entire living room into a studio.”
Would David mind? No. Would he mind if she gave up acting? No, again.
"The fans -- the girls like me," said Mrs. David McCallum (Jill Ireland) when we spoke to her as she made a guest appearance with Ray Walston and Bill Bixby on CBS' My Favorite Martian. Jill was working on the stage next to hubby's Man From UNCLE. But--he wasn't working. He was taping his guest shot with Carol Channing for airing early next year! We asked Jill how she felt about being Mrs. McCallum when every girl we knew was trying to just get to know David. And what these girls thought of her--what they said, and did.
"I really do think they like me," she smiled. "At least that's what I gather from their letters, and when I meet some. I think they feel since they know me--and that we ARE married and that I know HIM--there's no jealousy."
"How do you feel when you're in public and David--and you--are rushed by the mobs?" we asked.
"It doesn't bother me at all," she smiled. "I seem to be able to build some kind of maze, a wall around me and I don't even see it."
Jill, who is so slight, it's hard to believe that she is the mother of three boys, admits that she and David would like to add a daughter to the group. Right now, however, the boys, aged 7, 5 and 2, are a lot to handle--and she doesn't let them see UNCLE lest they get any wilder ideas than they already have.
"I showed them one story," she said, "when we got a print over one afternoon. But outside of that, they have no idea what their daddy--or mother, does for a living."