News flash! Troy/Phil super-fan Melanie has unearthed the missing half of the Troy McClure real-life connection:  Troy Donahue!  You've gotta check out his filmography-- real movies with titles like "Assault of the Party Nerds" and "Nudity Required"!  Thanks Melanie.

Attention Troy fans!  Thanks to a signature in the guestbook by one Tim Holden from Boston, I think I've tracked down who the real-life actor was that Troy McClure's character was based on!  His name is Doug McClure, and his filmography includes a long string of B-grade movies and a stint as Mayor Kyle Applegate on the semi-popular 1980s sitcom "Out of this World", about a half-alien girl named Evie who possesses special powers.  Check out Doug's mini-bio from IMDB and see if you think it matches Troy's description!

Educated at U.C.L.A., this blond leading man long made a career of apparent agelessness. He played one young sidekick after another through numerous movies and one TV series after another, playing twentiesh roles into his late forties. Although he made more than five hundred appearances in his career (counting TV episodes separately), he is undoubtedly best remembered as Trampas in the series "The Virginian" and "The Men from Shiloh" and the movie "Backtrack!" McClure was fighting cancer the last couple of years before his death; despite this, he continued working, appearing in the "Maverick" movie as one of the gamblers, as well as in "Riders in the Storm" and episodes of "Burke's Law" and "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" which didn't appear until after his death. McClure got a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame shortly before his death.