Diane McClure: Realtor With Show-Biz Ties

Longtime Sherman Oaks resident Diane McClure is connected. She’s not only a busy realtor very connected to her town; but as the widow of actor Doug McClure, she’s very connected to the entertainment industry she and her late husband loved so much.

“Doug has been gone since 1995, but I remain close to many of our friends in the business, especially Loni Anderson and Donna Pescow,” Diane told Sherman Oaks Patch.

“Everyone loved Doug and no one has ever forgotten him,” she said.

Diane met McClure in her native London when they worked together on several movies. She was just starting in the business and he was already well-established in Hollywood.

She was married for 17 years to the famously congenial McClure, who played the carefree Trampas character on TV’s long-running western series The Virginian during the 1960s.

“Doug was just as carefree in real life,” smiled Diane. “It was one of the things that made our life together so happy. Unfortunately, we just never foresaw his untimely death, at only 59. It was devastating.

“He was a very loved figure and I’ll never forget the kindness shown me by all the wonderful people he had worked with throughout his career. At his memorial service, there was such an outpouring of affection. Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Jim Drury, Bob Fuller, Jess Barker, Connie Stevens and, of course, Loni and Donna, and many others were there to remember him and support me. It still means the world to me.”

Diane, a petite, raven-haired English lass, had a busy real estate career which helped her through that difficult period. Today she works with Coldwell Banker’s Studio City offices and sells homes in Sherman Oaks and surrounding communities including Beverly Hills, Malibu and the many Valley areas.

“I’ve been so lucky to work with many clients in show business—friends of ours, colleagues of Doug’s—here in Sherman Oaks and all over Los Angeles,” she said.

"Most people never knew that Doug was just as amazing a cowboy in real life as he was in TV and movies. He loved competing in rodeos around the western United States, and won top honors in many of them. He was such a nice man … natural, real and easy-going. I can still see him with his cowboy hat pushed back on his forehead, smiling that dazzling smile of his.

"Doug loved living in Sherman Oaks; it was our home, and it's still mine," she added.

Diane McClure be reached at her office at 818-788-5400.