Hi, I’m D.B. Grady. You might remember me from such articles as The Criminal Lives of Classical Composers and Remarkable Things Discovered Under Parking Lots. In all of television history, no fictional character hosting fictional documentaries is better loved than Troy McClure. Voiced by the late Phil Hartman, the Simpsons fixture was based on real-life actors Doug McClure and Troy Donahue, the producers taking the surname from one and the first name from the other. Here are a few things you might not know about both halves of Troy McClure.“I don't know this Merle,” said Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part II, “I don't know what he does. I don't know what he lives on.” Michael might have been more open to his sister marrying Merle Johnson if he’d known that the would-be groom was played by the future Troy Donahue. But here’s the postmodern twist—”Troy Donahue” was just a screen name that Hollywood producers gave the actor at the start of his career. His real name? Merle Johnson.A c...
