Nicknamed “Sonny, McCalman helped form the Front Street Theatre in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. During the Korean War, he served in the U.S. Army.[citation needed] Over the course of his acting career McCalman appeared in various film and TV guest roles, usually in supporting parts, both dramatic and comedic often as heavies and authoritarian figures. He got his acting start on Broadway appearing in productions of The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1971), An Enemy for the People (1971), and a comedy, The Playboy Of the Western World.  His first Hollywood film role was in Deliverance (1972). He had supporting parts in The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979), The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), and Falling Down (1993). He also appeared in the Roger Donaldson directed film Marie (1985). He appeared in guest roles in television shows such as Cheers, Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, Lou Grant, Three’s Company, Murder She Wrote as well as such miniseries and television movies as Roots (1977) and Captains and the Kings (1976).  McCalman retired from acting and returned to Memphis in 1997 after suffering a heart attack. He died in a Memphis hospital in 2005, one month shy of his 73rd birthday, from complications of a series of strokes.