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Illya Kuryakin
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Illya Nickovetch Kuryakin is a fictional character from the 1960s TV spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E..
The series was remarkable for pairing an American Napoleon Solo and the Russian Kuryakin as two spies who work together for an international espionage organisation at the height of The Cold War. Kuryakin was played by British actor David McCallum.
Background
Although originally conceived as a minor character, Kuryakin, played by David McCallum, became an indispensible part of the show, achieving co-star status with the show’s lead Napoleon Solo played by Robert Vaughn.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
Illya Nickovetch Kuryakin is a fictional character from the 1960s TV spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E..
The series was remarkable for pairing an American Napoleon Solo and the Russian Kuryakin as two spies who work together for an international espionage organisation at the height of The Cold War. Kuryakin was played by British actor David McCallum.
Background
Although originally conceived as a minor character, Kuryakin, played by David McCallum, became an indispensible part of the show, achieving co-star status with the show’s lead Napoleon Solo played by Robert Vaughn. McCallum’s blond good looks and the enigmatic persona he created for the character garnered him a huge following of female fans. Such was the popular hysteria surrounding him that he was referred to in newspaper reports at the time as ‘the blond Beatle’ or the ‘fifth Beatle’. While playing Kuryakin, McCallum received more fan mail than any other actor in the history of MGM.
Much of the character’s appeal was based on what was ambiguous and enigmatic about him. When an acute reaction to penicillin hospitalised him in the early days of filming, David McCallum took the opportunity to give serious thought to how he might flesh out what was, at that stage, a sketchy peripheral character. The approach he hit upon was to build a persona based on ambiguity and enigma, hiding, rather than revealing, aspects of the agent’s background and personality. McCallum summed up the character in commenting "No one knows what Illya Kuryakin does when he goes home at night."
Nationality
Kuryakin is consistently referred to as a ‘Russian’, however he appears to have spent at least some of his childhood in Kiev in the Ukraine (“The Foxes and Hounds Affair”). He is Number Two in Section Two (Operations and Enforcement) at U.N.C.L.E. headquarters in New York. He appears to be a Soviet of good standing rather than a defector. In “The Neptune Affair” he appears in the uniform of the Russian Navy and is recalled to the USSR to help deal with a crisis. Despite the series being aired at the height of the Cold War, no great issue is made of Kuryakin’s nationality and politics. He expresses socialist sympathies from time to time, particularly in Season One, however in the later seasons his background is rarely mentioned and his accent becomes less pronounced.
McCallum appears to have drawn upon several Hollywood character types and Russian stereotypes in creating Kuryakin. Where Solo is the urbane, charming romantic lead in the mould of Cary Grant, Kuryakin’s appeal is that of the more dangerous and exotic hero in the tradition of Rudolf Valentino. Kuryakin’s character recalls the brooding, troubled protagonists of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novels and gestures towards the association of the USSR with scientific research and an earnest, intellectualised popular culture. Other traits which he possesses which recall popular images of Russia are his gymnastic ability, physical courage and taste for chess.
Personality
We know almost nothing about his family background. No parents or siblings are ever mentioned and next to nothing is known about his life in the USSR. Even Kuryakin’s marital status is an open question. In most episodes filmed before mid-1966 he wears a wedding band. In “The Bow Wow Affair” Kuryakin is asked explicitly whether he is married and answers evasively with a quote from Andrew Marvell: "Had I but world enough and time". His attitude to women contrasts with that of his partner. They chase him, but he rarely pursues them. His attitude towards romance is pragmatic and he appears to be both amused by and irritated by Solo’s weakness in this regard. However, on the rare occasions when he sets his cap at a woman (“The Double Affair”) he is capable of immense charm.
He holds a Masters from the Sorbonne and a PhD in Quantum Mechanics from the University of Cambridge. He appears to have been an undergraduate at the University of Georgia in the Ukraine, where he practiced gymnastics ("The Hot Number Affair"). Kuryakin is a polymath. He is well read in English literature, he has an indepth knowledge of music and plays the bass viol, the English horn and guitar. He also sings. He speaks many languages including French, German and Japanese. He is an expert on Gypsy culture (“The Terbuf Affair”), although quite how he became so familiar with it is never explained. His technical skills are also well honed. He is an explosives expert who stayed on at the U.N.C.L.E. Survival School a month after he graduated to teach a class on the subject. In “The THRUSH Roulette Affair” he is described as “proficient in Physical Arts, Judo, Karate, Fencing, Sharpshooter”.
He dresses more soberly than Solo and in darker colours - his signature costume is black slacks and a black turtleneck. He is generally more ascetic in his tastes than his partner and expresses distaste for extravagance on more than one occasion. His one indulgence is food and his enormous appetite is a recurring joke throughout the series.
Kuryakin is the perfect foil for his more personable, extroverted, risk-taking partner. He is shy, self-contained, taciturn, intellectual, irritable, pessimistic and intense. He is the more athletic of the two agents and also the more ruthless. He possesses a dry sense of humour, a fierce devotion to duty (which he describes as his only weakness) and a flair for the dramatic which shines through on numerous undercover assignments. On rare occasions it is suggested that a more passionate and sensitive personality lurks beneath his pragmatic exterior. In “The Neptune Affair” he exhibits genuine distress and anger when he describes the threat posed to millions of his countrymen by an attack on the Russian grain harvest. He also displays fierce loyalty to Solo and an enthusiasm for art and literature.
Afterlife
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was cancelled mid-way through its fourth season in 1968. McCallum reprised the role of Kuryakin for a 1983 TV movie The Return of the Man from UNCLE: The Fifteen Years Later Affair.
The character has enjoyed a rich afterlife in the U.N.C.L.E. fandom particularly in fan fiction. Kuryakin has been the subject of several popular songs including Alma Cogan's Love Ya Illya and Illya Kuryakin Looked at Me penned by Cleaners From Venus. The Argentine rap duo Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas were named after him.
Since 2003 McCallum has been playing Dr. Donald 'Ducky' Mallard in the TV series NCIS. In a Season 2 episode when Agent Jethro Gibbs is asked, "What did Ducky look like when he was younger?," Gibbs responds, "Illya Kuryakin".
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