 He recalled: 'Jill had just had a miscarriage so I was concerned about leaving her, but Charles Bronson said, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of her. I didn't realise they had already begun an affair.' Remarkably David, who died on Monday at 90, bore Bronson no ill will for the betrayal. 'I never hated him,' he said. 'Charlie was always a good friend. I find that when problems come along, worrying about them and getting anxious and negative is quite unnecessary. You can solve them, usually amicably. That's just what happened.' He claimed to have no memory){kind=link}
David was happily married to Jill Ireland when he introduced her to a co-star on the set of The Great Escape – a meeting that led to the collapse of his marriage
As David McCallum took his place among one of the most iconic casts Hollywood ever assembled, nothing in the film’s title, The Great Escape, struck him as ominous.
Why would it? He was happily married to fellow star Jill Ireland, with three children together. His career was firmly on the rise. He was playing naval officer Eric Ashley-Pitt in the 1963 Second World War epic about the mass escape of British and Commonwealth POWs from German Stalag Luft III camp.
His character, nicknamed Dispersal, was the one to come up with the genius idea of filling their trousers with soil from the excavated tunnel, to be shaken out in the exercise yard. He was acting alongside a line-up of big beasts: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, James Coburn… and Charles Bronson. Friendly McCallum introduced Bronson to his wife on set.
Hollywood legend has immortalised the moment, claiming Bronson responded: “I’m going to marry your wife!” And not long after, Jill made her escape from matrimony â straight into Bronson’s waiting arms. David had been called away for a screen test for The Greatest Story Ever Told, in which he would play Judas Iscariot.