Character
Along with Solo and Kuryakin, Alexander Waverly was the only character to appear on the show on a weekly basis. He is one of five regional heads in charge of the multi-national organisation, though his position appears to be that of primus inter pares. In one episode he presides over an annual meeting of the regional heads ('The Summit Five Affair').
In contrast to the ambiguity surrounding the backgrounds of Solo and Kuryakin, we are given some insight into Waverly's family situation. He mentions a grandson called Melvin in 'The Bat Cave Affair'. His cousin Lester Baldwin (also played by Carroll) appears in 'The Bow Wow Affair'. His brother-in-law is Professor Hemingway of Y.I.T., who he sometimes uses as a consultant ('The Mad, MAD Tea Party Affair'). In 'The Cap and Gown Affair' it emerges that Waverly is an alumnus of Blair University. His niece Maude Waverly, played by Yvonne Craig, appears in the U.N.C.L.E. film One Spy too Many although she does not feature in 'The Alexander the Greater Affair' the two-part television episode on which the film is based.
Mr. Waverly was also a regular in the short-lived, spin-off series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., making Carroll one of the first actors to play the same role in two television shows.
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Famous quotes containing the word character:
“No real “vital” character in fiction is altogether a conscious construction of the author. On the contrary, it may be a sort of parasitic growth upon the author’s personality, developing by internal necessity as much as by external addition.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Have you not budged an inch, then? Such is the daily news. Its facts appear to float in the atmosphere.... We should wash ourselves clean of such news. Of what consequence, though our planet explode, if there is no character involved in the explosion? In health we have not the least curiosity about such events. We do not live for idle amusement. I would not run round a corner to see the world blow up.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)