Sean McClory

Séan Joseph McClory was an Irish actor born in Dublin on 8 March 1924, who went on to build a career spanning six decades and encompassing more than 100 film and television productions. Though born in Dublin, he spent his early years in County Galway. His father, Hugh Patrick McClory, worked as an architect and civil engineer, and his mother, Mary Margaret, née Ball, was a model. McClory received his education at St. Ignatius Jesuit College and attended the National University of Ireland Medical School. During World War II he served in the Irish Army Medical Corps. In the years that followed, he supported himself through a variety of occupations, among them washing dishes, driving trucks, working at a gold mine on the California-Nevada border, and sailing around the world. At one point he sold his blood to pay for food and drink. He was sometimes credited as Shawn McGlory or Sean McGlory.

McClory's professional life began on the stage, where he developed a specialty in comedy at the Abbey Theatre in Ireland. It was there that Jack Votion, a European representative of RKO Pictures, discovered him, leading McClory to relocate to Hollywood in 1947. His Broadway career brought him to New York in 1951, when he portrayed Rory Commons in The King of Friday's Men. Regional theater work followed over subsequent decades, including a 1955 production of Dial "M" for Murder at the Sombrero Playhouse in Arizona, a 1984 staging of Shadow of a Gunman with the California Artists Repertory Theatre, and appearances at a summer theater in La Jolla, California.

In film, McClory's early Hollywood work included playing an Irish policeman in both Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome and Dick Tracy's Dilemma. He became a member of the John Ford Stock Company, appearing in Ford productions that included The Quiet Man, What Price Glory, The Long Gray Line, and Cheyenne Autumn. Among his other film roles, he portrayed a ringmaster in Ring of Fear in 1954 and a chauffeur in the 1986 comedy My Chauffeur.

Television occupied a substantial portion of McClory's career. He held recurring roles as Jack McGivern in the NBC Western series The Californians, Captain Clary in the NBC adventure series Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers, Pat McShane in the CBS crime drama Kate McShane, and Myles in the CBS adventure series Bring 'Em Back Alive. In 1958 he appeared as Ted O'Malley in the Richard Diamond, Private Detective episode "Short Haul" on CBS. He made two appearances on NBC's Bonanza, playing Mark Connors in the 1962 episode "The Tall Stranger" and Professor James Aloysius McCarthy in the 1963 comedic episode "Hoss and the Leprechauns." McClory guest-starred multiple times on Perry Mason, including the 1961 episode "The Case of the Malicious Mariner," the 1962 episode "The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle," and the 1964 episode "The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor." He appeared twice in the 1960 NBC Western series Overland Trail and made guest appearances on The Rifleman in 1961 and 1962, playing Irish romantic rival Dennis O'Flarrety opposite Chuck Connors's character Lucas McCain. In 1963 he appeared as Jaimie MacDonald in the GE True episode "Commando" on CBS, and he later took the role of a Scottish bagpiping ghost named Hamish in the Lost in Space episode "The Astral Traveller." He played Scott Winters in the Mannix episode "Then the Drink Takes the Man," which aired on 30 December 1967, and appeared as New York City policeman Tim O'Sullivan in The Beverly Hillbillies episode "Manhattan Hillbillies" in 1969.

In his personal life, McClory married four times. His third wife, Sue Alexander, died in 1979. In 1983 he married actress Peggy Webber. McClory died of a heart condition on 10 December 2003 at his home in Hollywood Hills, California, at the age of 79.