Background
McLean was born as Eugene Joseph Huth in Akron, Ohio.
McLean was born as Eugene Joseph Huth in Akron, Ohio.
In addition to his work for Marlboro, McLean starred as the title character in the short-lived National Broadcasting Company western television series, Tate, which aired only in the summer of 1960. He also appeared in numerous television programs and feature films of the 1960s and 1970s. He guest starred three times in the National Broadcasting Company television series Laramie: in the 1962 episodes "Beyond Justice", in the role of Steve Collier, a corrupt territorial politician, and in "A Grave Foreign Cully Brown" as Cully Brown, and as Marshal Branch McGary in the 1963 episode, "The Marshals." In 1966, he appeared in an episode of the long-running National Broadcasting Company western The Virginian.
He guest starred in the National Broadcasting Company western, Bonanza also Daniel Boone 1970.
In 1963, he was cast as the gangster Frank MacErlane in the episode "Open Season" of the Columbia Broadcasting System anthology series, General Electric True, hosted by Jack Webb. In the story line, James Best portrays the courageous Wisconsin game warden Ernie Swift who faces the reprisal of the mob after he tickets MacErlane for illegal fishing.
That year he also appeared on Perry Mason as the title character and defendant Trevor Harris in "The Case of the Lawful Lazarus." As Lazarus in the Bible had been raised by Jesus from the dead, Harris reappeared from a ten-year absence after being declared legally dead. He was also a fine woodworker and artist.
A lifelong smoker, McLean started suffering in 1985 from emphysema and had a tumor removed from a lung in 1994.
His libertarian bent prevented him from pursuing a direct suit against Philip Morris, but he did become an anti-smoking advocate. At a meeting of stockholders of Philip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboro, McLean requested that the company limit its advertising. He died of lung cancer at the age of seventy-three in Culver City.
A fictitious version of these purported events were featured in the comic novel Thank You for Smoking.
