At the time of his death, McClory had been married, and divorced, twice. He was survived by his two sons and two daughters.
It was on a trip to the Bahamas in 1959 with his friend Ivar Bryce that he was introduced to James Bond creator Ian Fleming . He had the idea of producing a film based on the character but with a new story not already published in one of Fleming's novels. To this end he introduced the screenwriter Jack Whittingham to the others. Whittingham wrote the first draft of the screenplay which Fleming later titled "Thunderball". Everything was ready to go when McClory's first feature film _Boy and the Bridge, The (1959)_ flopped at the box office. Fleming and Bryce got cold feet and the project ground to a halt. It was only two years later when Fleming began work on his ninth James Bond novel that the ideas he created with Whittingham and McClory finally came to light. Fleming was tired and suffering from ill-health and heart problems; the easiest thing, it seemed, would be to take the old story and adapt it into his latest novel, minimising the creative workload. With no intention of crediting either McClory or Whittingham for their work on the story he went ahead and wrote the novel "Thunderball". When McClory got wind of this he began a legal battle for royalties and rights to the story and its characters. It was a p
Owner of the rights to some aspects of the James Bond franchise. Was forced by the courts to make public some tantalizing details of the controversial Bond film, called "Warhead 2001", which he planned to produce in partnership with Sony. The court ultimately blocked this effort, awarding sole control of Bond's onscreen image to MGM/UA. The Sony Bond film was scrapped.