Doug McClure

Douglas Osborne McClure was born on May 11, 1935, in Glendale, California, to Donald Reed McClure and Clara Elsie McClure, née Barker. His mother had emigrated from England to the United States in 1915 alongside her widowed mother, who subsequently married an American named Frank S. Artman. Clara Barker was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1918 and married Irish-American Donald Reed McClure in 1929. Doug was the second of their two sons, preceded by Donald Reed McClure Jr. After being widowed, Clara later married Frank Clapp, a former mayor of Beverly Hills, in 1971.

McClure began accumulating screen credits in the late 1950s, appearing in films including Gidget (1959), The Enemy Below, The Unforgiven, and Because They're Young. On television, he took on recurring roles in Death Valley Days in 1957, the western series Overland Trail in 1960 — playing Flip Flippen opposite William Bendix across 17 episodes — and the CBS drama Checkmate from 1960 to 1962, in which he portrayed Jed Sills for 70 episodes. He also appeared in the third episode of CBS's The Twilight Zone, titled "Mr. Denton on Doomsday."

The role that defined McClure's public profile came in 1962, when he was cast as the cowboy Trampas on NBC's The Virginian. He held that role for the entirety of the series, which ran until 1971, alongside co-stars including James Drury, Lee J. Cobb, Tim Matheson, and John McIntire, among others. In 1965, during the run of the series, he appeared in the film Shenandoah, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring James Stewart. In 1967, he played the lead in The King's Pirate, a remake of Against All Flags in which he took on the role previously associated with Errol Flynn.

Following the conclusion of The Virginian, McClure appeared in the TV movie The Judge and Jake Wyler, a pilot produced and written by Richard Levinson and William Link that co-starred Bette Davis but did not advance to a series. He subsequently co-starred on the sci-fi and detective series Search from 1972 to 1973, playing C.R. Grover and rotating the lead with Hugh O'Brian and Anthony Franciosa. From 1975 to 1976, he co-starred with William Shatner in The Barbary Coast, playing casino owner Cash Conover, a role he assumed after Dennis Cole had originated the character in the pilot. During the same period, McClure shifted toward low-budget science-fiction films, starring in The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth's Core, and The People That Time Forgot, all three adapted from novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He also starred in Warlords of Atlantis in 1978. Additional film credits from this era include lead roles in The Longest Hundred Miles, The Birdmen, and State of Division. In 1984, he appeared in Cannonball Run II, and in 1994 he had a cameo as a poker player in the remake of Maverick.

In 1980, McClure brought his career to Broadway, appearing in The Roast. His performance earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play that same year.

From 1987 to 1991, McClure played Mayor Kyle Applegate, who later becomes police chief, on the fantasy sitcom Out of This World. In 1994, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television, located at 7065 Hollywood Boulevard. The unveiling of that star marked his final public appearance.

McClure was married five times. His first marriage, to actress BarBara Luna, lasted from 1961 to 1963. He was divorced four times in total, including twice during his years on The Virginian, and was married to his fifth wife at the time of his death.

On January 8, 1995, while filming an episode of One West Waikiki in Hawaii, McClure collapsed on set from an apparent stroke and was transported to Los Angeles for medical care. Doctors determined that lung cancer he had been living with for more than a year had spread to his liver and bones. Douglas McClure died on February 5, 1995, in Sherman Oaks, California, at the age of 59.