Hi , I ’m D.B. Grady . You might remember me from such articles asThe Criminal life of Classical ComposersandRemarkable Things expose Under Parking hatful . In all of television receiver account , no fictional character host fictional documentary film is better loved than Troy McClure . Voiced by the late Phil Hartman , theSimpsonsfixture was based on real - life actors Doug McClure and Troy Donahue , the producer take the family name from one and the first name from the other . Here are a few affair you might not bonk about both halves of Troy McClure .
Troy Donahue almost married into the Corleone crime family.
“ I do n’t get it on this Merle , ” say Michael Corleone inThe Godfather , Part II , “ I do n’t know what he does . I do n’t know what he live on . ” Michael might have been more open to his sister marrying Merle Johnson if he ’d known that the would - be groom was make for by the next Troy Donahue . But here ’s the postmodernist twist—”Troy Donahue ” was just a screen name that Hollywood producer gave the actor at the start of his career . His tangible name ? Merle Johnson .
A certainSimpsonscharacter seemed strangely familiar…
" Are they cook fun of me ? " asked Doug McClure while he and his family unit were take in an episode ofThe Simpsons . According to his daughter , Doug became a big devotee of the series , and his kids jestingly call him “ Troy ” behind his back .
Troy is the word.
Troy Donahue features in the lyrics of “ calculate at Me , I ’m Sandra Dee , ” from the musicalGrease :
He was also the subject of Andy Warhol in the pic - silkscreen printTroy Diptych .
They once crossed paths in the Old West.
The Virginianran for nine seasons and was the first 90 - minute of arc westerly serial on television . It was also , apparently , the nexus of pop culture . Among the show ’s many client principal were George C. Scott , Harrison Ford , William Shatner , Ricardo Montalban ( KHAAAAAAAN ! ) , Burgess Meredith , and Leslie Nielsen . Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley once appearedtogether . And even though they have two hundred movies and TV roles between them , Shiloh Ranch marked the one spot where Doug McClure and Troy Donahue appeared together on screen , in a single 1969 episode titled “ Fox , Hound and the Widow McCloud . ”
“Damn, it’s nice to be a movie star.”
Troy Donahue get his big break when he was cast opposite Sandra Dee in the filmA Summer Place . " I think I was always just astonished , and I never got cocky about the whole thing , " he later said . " It was more of a ' Gee whiz ' or ' Damn , it ’s courteous to be a movie asterisk ' sort of feeling . " His most successful sensation vehicle was 1961’sParrish , a coming of age story of a young Fannie Farmer and businessman ; his most remembered role will probably be the aforementioned Merle Johnson fromThe Godfather , Part II .
McClure ’s most notable office was onThe Virginian , where he starred as Trampas , a boisterous , reformed villain who worked on the Shiloh Ranch . Said McClure of the role , " I ’m back where I want to be . I like doing out-of-door shows . I ’m out in the overbold air or else of being cooped up in a stage all day , and this show give you a chance to get a small colour in the delineation . In a detective show , most of the duologue is along the lines of ‘ Where were you on the dark of Jan. 12 ? ’ ”
Doug McClure gets a star
Two months before he decease of lung Cancer the Crab , Doug McClure received a ace on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . " It gave me the motivator to get well , ” he said at the event , “ and I am well . " Indeed , he was well enough to guest star in episode ofKung - Fu : The Legend ContinuesandOne West Waikiki . McClure collapsed on exercise set of the Hawaii - free-base television series , and later learned that his genus Cancer had spread to his liver and pearl . He died on February 5 , 1995 at the age of 59 .
“It’s never been as good as it is now.”
After his whiz reached its peak in the mid-1960s , Troy Donahue spend the next thirty age as a B vitamin - film superstar . His last role was in the 2000 autonomous comedyThe Boys Behind the Desk . " I ’m not looking for counter , " he pronounce in an interview . " I do n’t pine for the old days or think , ' Oh , it could have been . ' It ’s never been as good as it is now , and if you tell apart me back then that this is the way it was going to be , I would have been much projecting . " He die out in 2001 at the age of 62 .
