- Buried a few yards from Richard Burton in Celigny, Switzerland.
- Employed the pseudonym Ian Stuart several times in order to prove that his books were best-sellers due to their content and not solely because his name appeared on the cover.
- He wrote many best-selling action novels that were turned into often successful movies. When asked to comment on why his stories were so popular he remarked that he always wrote stories that were visual. Since they were easy to imagine when the books were read, they were easy to film.
- After MacLean's death, author Alistair MacNeill managed to continue writing suspense novels in the MacLean tradition by keeping MacLean's name on the cover.
- In the early 1980s, he was commissioned by an American film studio to write a series of story outlines to be subsequently produced as movies. MacLean compiled several stories about a fictitious United Nations crime-fighting organization, several of which were adapted as books by other authors. These include 'Death Train (1993) (TV)' and 'Night Watch (1995) (TV)' (both written by Alistair MacNeill) which were filmed starring Pierce Brosnan.
- His wife Mary Marcelle Maclean was a former actress who started two production companies: "Alcelle Productions Limited" and "MMM Prodcutions Ltd."
- Film rights to his novel, Night Without End, were acquired by Paramount in 1959 for producers George Seaton and William Perlberg. Novelist Eric Ambler was hired to write the screenplay, while William Holden, Debbie Reynolds and Lilli Palmer were cast in lead roles. As late as 1961, the producers still planned location shoots in Scandinavia or Alaska, but the film was never made.
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