Robert Francis Vaughn was born on November 22, 1932 at Charity Hospital in New York City. The son of show-business parents, his father, Walter, was a radio actor and his mother, Marcella, was a stage actress. Robert came to the public's attention first with his Oscar-nominated role in Ce monde à part (1959). The next year, he was one of the seven in the western classic Les 7 mercenaires (1960). Despite being in such popular films, he generally found work on television. He appeared over 200 times in guest roles in the late 1950s to early 1960s. It was in 1963 that he received his first major role in The Lieutenant (1963). Robert took the role with the intention of making the transition from being a guest-star actor to being a co-star on television. It was due to his work in this series that producer Norman Felton offered him the role of Napoleon Solo in Des agents très spéciaux (1964).
Four extremely successful years (1964-68) followed as the series became one of the most popular television series of the 1960s. That made Vaughn an international television star, but he wanted to embark on a career in film, and did so soon after the series ended in 1968 by co-starring in Bullitt (1968) with Steve McQueen. Now working in film full-time, he starred in Le pont de Remagen (1969) and The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970) before making a change by going back to television, this time in England, He took a lead role in the series Poigne de fer et séduction (1972) and stayed in England for the first half of the 1970s. He returned to the United States in the mid-1970s and embarked on a very successful run of television miniseries roles that resulted in his receiving an Emmy Award in 1978 for Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977) and a nomination the following year for Backstairs at the White House (1979).
The 1970s proved a important time in Robert's life, as in 1974, he married actress Linda Staab, and completed his thesis on Hollywood blacklisting during the McCarthy "Red Scare" era, published in 1972 as "Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting". During the 1980s, he mixed television with film. Roles in such films as S.O.B. (1981), Superman III (1983), Delta Force (1986) and Sans issue (1986) were highlights. In television, he appeared in many successful series, most notably in L'agence tous risques (1983) and Emerald Point N.A.S. (1983).
He continued to mix the types of projects, even appearing on stage on numerous occasions. The 1990s has seen the same variety of roles. Made-for-TV movies have been a popular choice for him, as well as such series as As the World Turns (1956), Une nounou d'enfer (1993) and New York - Police judiciaire (1990), and he had a role in the 1998 series that was a remake of the classic film in which he appeared, Les 7 mercenaires (1998). Even though he has also appeared in major features such as Joe's Apartment (1996) and BASEketball (1998), he has taking it more easy these days. He has been working on his autobiography titled "Christ, Shakespeare, Ho Chi Min: As I Knew Them" for some years now, but no date has been set for publication.
