Original EqualizerRobert McCall was played by Edward Woodward, a British actor. Like newer iterations of the character, Edward’s version of McCall was a secret agent who helped the otherwise-helpless when police couldn’t or wouldn’t.
As well The New York Times noted in 2009, upon Edward’s death, the character was similar to David Callan, the British counterintelligence agent Edward played in the ITV series CallanBetween 1967 and 1972.
“McCall was a veritable reprise of Callan, but now in middle age, a man who has seen how the powerless are exploited by the powerful and the innocent by the conniving and who can’t take it anymore,”The TimesObserved. “Well-dressed, unthreatening in appearance behind his professorial glasses, McCall was nonetheless a man with a volatile temper and a willingness to pull the trigger. He found his clients with classified ads: ‘Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer.’”
