"Hi, I'm Doug McClure!"
A brief tribute to the star of The Land That Time Forgot, At The Earth's Core and Warlords Of Atlantis.
The Simpsons’ favourite B-movie star Troy McClure - who some of you might remember from such films as Calling All Quakers, Suddenly Last Supper and The Greatest Story Every Hula’d - was inspired by two real-life actors, closet-bound heartthrob Troy Donohue and gritty action man Doug McClure.
McClure is perhaps best remembered for starring in such as film as At The Earth’s Core and The Land That Time Forgot in which he fought rubber dinosaurs while armed only with a good right cross and a slightly too tight white t-shirt.
Made at a time when McClure was also fighting the bottle, these pictures - produced by the British horror outfit Amicus - will always have an audience providing young boys who fantasise about going toe-to-toe with an allosaurus, or two. Before he became a B-movie action king, however Douglas Osborne McClure was a bona fide Hollywood star.
The Virginian (1962-1971) was the TV show that made McClure a household name, As the handsome cowhand Trampas, the California-raised actor received more fan mail than anyone else on the Fox lot. If his television commitments made him famous, they also prevented Doug from pursuing an A-list career in movies, a role opposite James Stewart in Shenandoah and a supporting part in John Huston’s The Unforgiven proving rare highlights.
While he didn’t became a star in the Steve McQueen mold, Doug McClure carved out a niche in the realm of exploitation pictures. Besides Earth’s Core and Time Forgot, he battles Nazi aliens in Warlords Of Atlantis and underwater nasties in Humanoids From The Deep.
Sure, the movies weren’t classics but McClure’s commitment was heroic. And while he died before he turned 60, he lived long enough to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
So farewell, Doug McClure, who some of you may remember from such films as The Hell Hounds Of Alaska (1973), The House Where Evil Dwells (1982) and Wild And Woolly (1978).