Robert Francis Vaughn was born in New York City on November 22, 1932. As a child, he was cast on radio shows including Let's Pretend and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. He moved to Hollywood in 1952. He studied theater arts at Los Angeles City College. After he graduated in 1956, he signed with Columbia Pictures for $15,000 a role. From 1964 to 1968, he starred as Napoleon Solo in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He appeared in several movies including The Magnificent Seven, The Young Philadelphians, and Superman III. In 1978, he won an Emmy for his performance as a White House chief of staff in the mini-series Washington: Behind Closed Doors. In the mid-1960's, he received a doctorate in… communications from the University of Southern California. His dissertation, The Influence of the House Committee on Un-American Activities on the American Theater 1938-58, was published as a book, Only Victims, in 1972. He also wrote an autobiography entitled A Fortunate Life. He died from acute leukemia on November 11, 2016 at the age of 83.