Doug came to prominence in the T.V series, ‘The Virginian’
Doug McClure was born in 1935 in California. He became an accomplished horse rider in his childhood, which would hold him in good stead for some of his future acting roles. He attended the University of California and did some modelling and commercials before getting a couple of minor and uncredited acting roles in several films.
One of his first screen appearances was in the western The Unforgiven (1960) with Burt Lancaster and Shenandoah (1965) with James Stewart. His first notable acting role around that time was in the T.V detective series Checkmate, which ran for 70 episodes.
In 1962, Doug landed the role of Trampas, the cowhand, in the T.V western series The Virginian, (1962 to 1971) which ran for nine seasons.
He would appear throughout the seventies, in several t.v series and many low budget and made-for-t.v movies. (There’s a full movie on You Tube that he stars in called The Hellhounds of Alaska (1973) which I’m going to take a look at, when I’ve finished writing this)!
Now we’re coming up to my favourite part. It was my love of dinosaurs which brought Doug McClure to my attention.
One of my favourite films
I remember seeing the monster flick, The Land That Time Forgot‘ in the Easter holidays when I was growing up. I’ve just recently watched it again, twice. (I watch it at least once a year) and I didn’t notice it at the time but there’s a great deal of violence in it, a lot of butt-stroking (striking someone with the butt stoke of a long gun) and a fair amount of punch ups, but no-one really gets hurt, except when they’re being eaten by a dinosaur. This is not your typical children’s movie. It’s set in World War One. When the characters weren’t on the land that time forgot, they were inside a U-boat.
I just let one go. Do you think anyone will notice?
The monster effects are bad, but when you consider that all the dinosaurs were hand puppets, they’re not that bad. You forget about the effects when you’re ten because the characters and the story draw you in, and of course, your own imagination keeps everything authentic.
Keep that beak away from me. I know where it’s been.
Keith Barron, who starred alongside him said that Doug was very handy during the fight scenes. He knew exactly where he should be, to meet all the right camera angles and how to throw a punch and make it look real.
Doug originally turned down the lead role in this movie and another actor took his place but Samuel Z. Arkoff of American International Pictures suddenly became co-financers. They would provide the budget and only make the film if McClure was cast. He finally changed his mind and agreed to do the film.
Doug went on to do a string of fantasy/sci-fi adventure movies, including At the Earth’s Core, The People That Time Forgot, Warlords from Atlantis and Humanoids From The Deep.
Doug always seemed to be in B movies, and sometimes, looking through his vast catalogue of film and T.V experiences, he isn’t even credited, or is so low down on the list that you don’t see his name, let alone given top billing. He wasn’t pushy or overly ambitious. He just loved to act. I think that’s a testimony to his modesty and his unprententiousness.
Doug was married five times and has two daughters.
He passed away from lung cancer, at age 59.
I always felt that Doug McClure had that rare acting ability, where he could convey so much without saying a word.
He was under rated, under used, fed to the B movie world.
He played the typical romanticized action movie hero, a no nonsense, use-your-fists type of guy who was always in comforting, re-assurance protector mode. Rough and ready but always a gentleman and always honourable. He gained cult status by being that character in those types of movies.
For me, he will always be synonymous with dinosaur movies and the joy they brought to me, and still bring today.
This true story about the holocaust is a difficult read because of the subject matter and I keep having to put it aside for a few days, before attempting it again. It’s well written and researched and goes into great detail, which makes it informative but also horrific. A Jewish family are split up, the mother and daughter are taken to a death camp, another daughter escapes to Britain, a son to the States. The book follows the life of the father and his eldest son, who survived six years in five different concentration camps.
While it is worse than the worst horror movie, it is tempered throughout by incredible moments of courage, survival, optimism and hope.
A fascinating autobiography of Winston’s early years. It focuses on his upbringing and schooling for about a third of book, and then, quite sharply he seems to plunge straight into war. I’m just a few pages before the end of this one. It reads in some ways like a war novel, with lots of action and descriptive battle scenes. The highlight has to be when he escapes from a Boer prisoner-of-war camp, is wanted dead or alive and goes on the run, with just a bit of chocolate in his pocket. I like Churchill’s smooth, soothing and mesmerizing prose. He could write up a telephone directory in his own words and it would read like a dynamic, inspirational speech.
From Boer battle to Dinosaur war, this is the second book in the Jurassic Park series. I prefer the scientific revelations, the ideas, the dialogue and conversations between characters, to the prolonged action scenes with dinosaurs. I should have read the book before seeing the movie. I keep seeing the movie in my mind while I’m reading the book. Not always a bad thing but dinosaurs are better seen ‘in action’, rather than read about. Still, without the book, there would be no movie and it’s still an exciting read.
I’ve just finished this. The author has a witty and clever style of writing and is able to put you on an emotional roller coaster throughout. It starts off with an elderly lady, Flo, who has a fall and is waiting to be found on the floor of her flat. Then there is a flash back, until the end of the book. She has a friend called Elsie and there is a sinister man from her past who moves into an apartment close by. Its characters are full of life and there is a lot of banter between them. The story is original, fast paced, exciting and full of twists and turns. Though, I did guess the major twist at the end, right from the beginning.
Paul O’Grady was a drag queen in the 70’s, miming to songs and then doing stand up as Lily Savage, in the 80’s, before he became a T.V presenter with his own successful shows. He originally comes from the same neck of the woods as I do, so it was fun recognising all the places he talks about in the book. He has had a haphazard, chaotic lifestyle, and in this second auto biography, he is looking for a way out of his working class existence by running head first into each new adventure. The book details his many, varied, interesting and sometimes unappealing, challenging and downright shocking jobs on his way to stardom. He appears to work and play with equal fervour. The book is vividly descriptive, witty, funny, sad and scathing, all at the same time. Unputdownable.
‘Go towards the fear because without it, you’ll never know what you’re missing.’
Jaclyn was born in Houston, Texas in 1945. After leaving school she trained as a ballet dancer and appeared in many beauty product commercials. She was offered the main role in the cult T.V series Dark Shadows, but turned it down.
‘I passed on parts and opportunities, that if someone pushed me a bit more out of my comfort zone, I may have ended up really enjoying.’
Jaclyn Smith
After doing a couple more shampoo ads, she landed the role of Kate Garrett in Charlie’s Angels. The show ran for five seasons and Jaclyn was the only ‘Angel’ to do the whole five.
Jiggle T.V?
Charlie’s Angels was called ‘Jiggle T.V’ by some critics, but Jaclyn defends the series by saying that it was about independent women just ‘carrying out their job’ and ultimately, she says, it was about friendship.
After Charlie Angel’s was cancelled, she starred in the television movie, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, getting a golden globe nomination for Best Actress. She appeared in many T.V movies and miniseries throughout the eighties and nineties including ‘The Bourne Identity‘ and several T.V versions of Danielle Steel novels.
‘If you don’t love it, it’s not going to work’
In 1985, Jaclyn pioneered the idea that celebrities could develop their own products rather than representing other brands and introduced a collection of women’s clothing and accessories for Kmart.
A few years later, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
‘If I knew then what I know now, there are several moments I would have been more assertive by either demanding more for myself, or simply having the confidence to walk away when something wasn’t working.’
Jaclyn Smith
From 2002 to 2004, she had a recurring role in the TV series The Districtand reprised her role as Kelly Garrett for a cameo in the 2003 Charlie’s Angel’s movie, ‘Full Throttle.’ She was also receiving breast cancer treatment around this time, which she has fully recovered from.
In 2008, she added home furnishings, bedding and bath accessories to her Kmart collection and has since launched a wig and skin care collection.
‘If it’s not authentic then it’s not you.’
She cites clean living, being loved and a healthy lifestyle as some of the secrets to beauty. She has several tips for great skin, including making home made skin cream concoctions with things you have lying around the kitchen, as well as slathering on ‘Abolene’ cream in the shower (not part of her skin care range) and letting the steam get to work on it.
She has been married four times. She has a son and daughter with her third husband, film-maker Tony Richmond. She is now married to cardiothoracic surgeon Brad Allen.
Jaclyn was a role model for me growing up. She said, half jokingly, while chatting with Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, that she was the ‘sweet one’ in Charlie’s Angel’s. I agree and I think that applies to real life too. I realise now, that was one of the main reasons why I liked her, and it was instinctive when I was a young girl. A lot of people who have known her/ know her, say that she’s beautiful on the outside, but that she’s even more beautiful on the inside.
Quote sources are from the excellent Jaclyn Smith interview with Yitzi Weiner.
I want women to want to be me, or be my best friend!”
Lynda Carter was born in Phoenix in 1951. She performed on a Talent Show at the age of five and was a singer in a band at high school and later in a group with her cousins. She was voted ‘Most Talented’ at Arizona State University but dropped out to pursue a career in music. She performed on tour with a band called The Garfin Gathering and won Miss World USA 1972.
Lynda and her band, The Garfin Gathering
She took acting classes in New York at this time and appeared in a number of B movies before getting her big break playing DC comic book heroine, Wonder Woman. The series lasted from 1975 to 1979.
Growing up, Lynda was a memorable and positive role model for me. I thought the costume was awesome. Now, I have mixed feelings about the way she was dressed. She is hardly wearing anything really, it’s a glorified bikini, she’s all boobs and legs. It’s a male fantasy, but it has to be said, it’s also a female fantasy, for women scrabbling for a postive role model. This was really all we had in the seventies. It was a very mysogynstic time. (Who am I kidding? It still is). We can see a woman’s beauty and power and sensuality on one hand, but on the other, these days, we can see that Wonder Woman was obviously objectified (but glad it was shorts rather than a skirt, a tad better) but all I saw as an eight year old girl, was a very positive, intelligent, beautiful, strong and kind character which maybe helped me get through some of my childhood angst, and the whole thing stays true to the DC comic books. And if it did feel very positive, maybe it was.
She wanted to play the part so that other women would relate to her. She said, ‘I want women to want to be me, or be my best friend!” That’s exactly how I felt. I wanted to be her, or be her best friend. So I think she nailed it!
She married her agent, Ron Samuels in 1977 and during the late seventies, she went back to her first love, which was music, and recorded an album called Portrait.
Unhappy in her marriage, Lynda began drinking heavily. In 1982, she left her home, leaving her husband a note. She sought a divorce, but she says she has no animosity towards him and wishes him well.
A few years later she met and married Washington, D.C. Attorney Robert A. Altman and had two children, Jessica and Jamie. She also sought help with her drinking and has been sober now for around 22 years. In 2016, she said, ‘After 18 years of recovery, I live every day with immense gratitude. I am forever thankful for my family and friends who stood by me and encouraged me… and for those who helped me heal.’ She emphasizes the importance of family support in addiction issues.
In 1993, just when Lynda thought she had it all, a perfect husband and two wonderful children, her husband was accused of bank fraud and their world imploded. A huge court case ensued. Lynda implies that those two and a half years, when they were clearing his name, were the worst of her life. Eventually, his name was cleared and they could finally get on with their lives.
After Wonder Woman, Lynda appeared in several musical T.V specials and a crime drama series called Partners In Crime in 1984. Then in the 1990’s, she appeared in several television movies and in the comedy/horror film, The Creature in The Sunny Side Up Trailer Park 2004, playing a has-been beauty queen. In 2005, she appeared in the remake of The Dukes Of Hazard and Disney movie ‘Sky High’ and guested in the vampire film ‘Slayer’ and the T.V series ‘Smallville.’
She has also done many voice overs, mostly for the video game, The Elder Scrolls.
She played ‘Mama Morton’ in the West End production of Chicago.
In June 2009 and 2011, respectively, she released her second and third albums, a mix of jazz, country and pop. In 2015, she wrote and recorded five songs for the video game Fallout 4. In 2018, she released her fourth album, a bluesy record, where she duets two songs with her daughter Jessica.
Lynda was inadvertently, part of the Me too movement. In 2018, she spoke about being violated by a famous person, back in the day, but wouldn’t name names or describe incidents. She said the person was in the justice system at the time and was being held accountable for his crimes. She did say, however, that she thought every single woman in the Bill Cosby case was telling the truth.
In 2016, Lynda received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gracie Awards.
On April 3, 2018, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce proudly honored Carter with the 2,632nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Things In My Head 