James Drury
Encyclopedia
James Child Drury, Jr. is an American
actor
probably best known for his success in playing the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western
television series The Virginian
, broadcast on NBC
from 1962-1971. With 12-14 hour workdays, the series had perhaps the most demanding production schedules in the history
of network television.
professor
of marketing
. He grew up in both New York and Oregon
.
After a series of bit parts and playing second-lead for Walt Disney
, in 1962 Drury got a substantial role as a lascivious gold prospector in the early Sam Peckinpah
western Ride the High Country
. In the same year, he also landed the top-billed leading role of the ranch
foreman on The Virginian, a lavish series which ran for nine seasons. The show was based on Owen Wister
's classic novel
, and the various screen versions that had been filmed since. It has been rumored that Drury was possibly cast because of a vague resemblance to Gary Cooper
, who had played the part in an early movie version. In the series, as the novel, the actual name of "The Virginian" is never revealed. Other Drury costars on The Virginian included Lee J. Cobb
, Randy Boone
, Roberta Shore
, Gary Clarke
, Clu Gulager
, Diane Roter
and toward the end of the run, Tim Matheson
. Drury also had a cameo role in the 2000 TV movie of The Virginian starring Bill Pullman
. The film followed Wister's novel more closely than had the television series.
Drury appeared in a number of film
s and other television programs, including the TV cowboy reunion movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw with Doug McClure
, who played the fun-loving cowhand, Trampas for the entire run of The Virginian.
In 1991 Drury was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers
at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City
. In 1997 and 2003, he was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina
. At the 2003 show, he was reunited with his Virginian co-stars Gary Clarke
, Randy Boone, and Roberta Shore
.
Drury was in the oil and natural gas business in Houston
at the turn of the 21st century. His son, Timothy Drury
, is a keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist who has played with The Eagles and also with Whitesnake
. Drury was a close friend of the Houston marksman
Joe Bowman
, who trained numerous actors on how to use weapons.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
probably best known for his success in playing the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
television series The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
, broadcast on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from 1962-1971. With 12-14 hour workdays, the series had perhaps the most demanding production schedules in the history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
of network television.
Biography
Drury was born in New York, New York, where his father James Sr. was a New York UniversityNew York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
. He grew up in both New York and Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
.
After a series of bit parts and playing second-lead for Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
, in 1962 Drury got a substantial role as a lascivious gold prospector in the early Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...
western Ride the High Country
Ride the High Country
Ride the High Country is a noted 1962 American Western film. It stars Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, Ron Starr, Edgar Buchanan and Mariette Hartley. It was written by N.B...
. In the same year, he also landed the top-billed leading role of the ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
foreman on The Virginian, a lavish series which ran for nine seasons. The show was based on Owen Wister
Owen Wister
Owen Wister was an American writer and "father" of western fiction.-Early life:Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a well-known neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of...
's classic novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, and the various screen versions that had been filmed since. It has been rumored that Drury was possibly cast because of a vague resemblance to Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, who had played the part in an early movie version. In the series, as the novel, the actual name of "The Virginian" is never revealed. Other Drury costars on The Virginian included Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
, Randy Boone
Randy Boone
Clyde Wilson Randall Boone, Jr., known as Randy Boone , is a former actor who co-starred in two of the three 90-minute westerns telecast during the 1960s on the national television networks, NBC's The Virginian and CBS's Cimarron Strip...
, Roberta Shore
Roberta Shore
Roberta Jymme Schourop , better known as Roberta Shore, is an American actress and performer, most famous for her youthful television and movie roles in the 1950s and early 1960s....
, Gary Clarke
Gary Clarke
Gary Clarke is an American actor best known for his role as Steve Hill in the NBC western television series The Virginian with James Drury. Clarke appeared on the program only for its first three seasons, 1962—1964...
, Clu Gulager
Clu Gulager
Clu Gulager is an American television and film actor. He is particularly noted for his co-starring role as William H. Bonney in the 1960–62 NBC TV series The Tall Man and for his role in the later NBC series The Virginian...
, Diane Roter
Diane Roter
Diane Roter is an American actress best known for her appearances in the long running TV western The Virginian in its fourth season which ran from 1965 to 1966. She then appeared in an episode of Laredo which was a spin off from The Virginian series in 1966 and later appeared in an episode of the...
and toward the end of the run, Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
. Drury also had a cameo role in the 2000 TV movie of The Virginian starring Bill Pullman
Bill Pullman
William James "Bill" Pullman is an American film, television, and stage actor. Pullman made his film debut in the supporting role of Earl Mott in the 1986 film Ruthless People. He has since gone on to star in other films, including Spaceballs, Independence Day, Lost Highway, Casper and Scary Movie 4...
. The film followed Wister's novel more closely than had the television series.
Drury appeared in a number of film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s and other television programs, including the TV cowboy reunion movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw with Doug McClure
Doug McClure
Douglas Osborne "Doug" McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s...
, who played the fun-loving cowhand, Trampas for the entire run of The Virginian.
In 1991 Drury was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers
Hall of Great Western Performers
The Hall of Great Western Performers is a Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. It is sometimes referred to as the "Western Performers Hall of Fame"...
at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
. In 1997 and 2003, he was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
. At the 2003 show, he was reunited with his Virginian co-stars Gary Clarke
Gary Clarke
Gary Clarke is an American actor best known for his role as Steve Hill in the NBC western television series The Virginian with James Drury. Clarke appeared on the program only for its first three seasons, 1962—1964...
, Randy Boone, and Roberta Shore
Roberta Shore
Roberta Jymme Schourop , better known as Roberta Shore, is an American actress and performer, most famous for her youthful television and movie roles in the 1950s and early 1960s....
.
Drury was in the oil and natural gas business in Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
at the turn of the 21st century. His son, Timothy Drury
Timothy Drury
Timothy Drury is a keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist. He was the keyboard player in rock band Whitesnake up until September 2010.He is the son of actor James Drury....
, is a keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist who has played with The Eagles and also with Whitesnake
Whitesnake
Whitesnake are an English rock band, founded in 1978 by David Coverdale after his departure from his previous band, Deep Purple. The band's early material has been compared by critics to Deep Purple, but by the mid 1980s they had moved to a more commercial hard rock style...
. Drury was a close friend of the Houston marksman
Marksman
A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision, or a sharpshooter shooting, using projectile weapons, such as with a rifle but most commonly with a sniper rifle, to shoot at long range targets...
Joe Bowman
Joe Bowman (marksman)
Joe Bowman, born Joseph Lee Bowman , was a Houston bootmaker and marksman called "The Straight Shooter", considered to have been a guardian of Texas and western frontier culture. Shortly after his death, Bowman was inducted posthumously into the Texas Heroes Hall of Honor at the Frontier Times...
, who trained numerous actors on how to use weapons.
Filmography
- Blackboard JungleBlackboard JungleBlackboard Jungle is a 1955 social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school. It is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter.-Plot:...
(1955) uncredited - Love Me or Leave MeLove Me or Leave Me (film)Love Me or Leave Me is a 1955 biographical film which tells the life story of Ruth Etting, a singer who rose from dancer to movie star. It stars Doris Day as Etting, James Cagney as gangster Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder, her first husband and manager, and Cameron Mitchell as pianist/ arranger Myrl...
(1955) - The Tender Trap (1955)
- DianeDiane (film)Diane is a 1956 American historical film drama about the life of Diane de Poitiers, produced by MGM. It was directed by David Miller and produced by Edwin H. Knopf from a screenplay by Christopher Isherwood based on a story by John Erskine. The music score was composed by Miklós Rózsa, Robert H....
(1956) uncredited - The Last Wagon (1956)
- Forbidden PlanetForbidden PlanetForbidden Planet is a 1956 science fiction film directed by Fred M. Wilcox, with a screenplay by Cyril Hume. It stars Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, and Anne Francis. The characters and its setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, and its plot contains certain...
(1956) - Love Me TenderLove Me Tender (1956 film)Love Me Tender is a 1956 American black-and-white CinemaScope motion picture directed by Robert D. Webb, and released by 20th Century Fox on November 21, 1956. The film, named after the song, stars Richard Egan, Debra Paget, and Elvis Presley in his film debut. It is in the Western genre with...
(1956) - BernardineBernardine (film)Bernardine is a 1957 film directed by Henry Levin and starring Pat Boone, Terry Moore, Dean Jagger, Dick Sargent, and Janet Gaynor. The 1952 play upon which the movie is based was written by Mary Coyle Chase, the Denver playwright who also wrote the smash hit Broadway play Harvey...
(1957) - Good Day for a HangingGood Day for a HangingGood Day for a Hanging is a western concerning how a town views the upcoming hanging of a young man accused of murdering the sheriff during a robbery. Directed by Nathan H. Juran, it stars Fred MacMurray as the reluctant new sheriff and Robert Vaughn as the young man accused of the crime....
(1959) - Toby TylerToby TylerToby Tyler is a Disney film released on January 21, 1960 by Buena Vista Distribution Company, based on the 1880 children's book Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus by James Otis Kaler....
(1960) as Jim Weaver - PollyannaPollyanna (1960 film)Pollyanna is a Walt Disney Productions feature film starring child actress Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, Karl Malden and Richard Egan in a story about a cheerful orphan changing the outlook of a small town. Based upon the novel Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter, the film was written and directed by David...
(1960) - Ten Who DaredTen Who DaredTen Who Dared is a movie made by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution in 1960. It tells the story of United States Army officer John Wesley Powell, who was the first to travel down the Colorado River, and the dangers that he and nine other men had to face while making a...
(1960) - Third of a Man (1962)
- Ride the High CountryRide the High CountryRide the High Country is a noted 1962 American Western film. It stars Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, Ron Starr, Edgar Buchanan and Mariette Hartley. It was written by N.B...
(1962) - The Young Warriors aka Eagle Warriors (1967)
- Breakout (1968) TV movie
- The Devil and Miss Sarah (1971) TV movie
- The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991)
- The Virginian (2000) TV movie
- Hell to PayHell to Pay (film)Hell to Pay is a 2005 British film by Roberto Gomez Martin, his directorial debut, about a London East End's gangster life based on the semi-autobiographical story of Dave Courtney, who plays character of Dave Malone in the film.-Plot:...
(2005)
Television series
- Steve CanyonSteve CanyonSteve Canyon was a long-running American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947 until June 4, 1988, shortly after Caniff's death...
- Twice as Lieutenant Richard Muller - GunsmokeGunsmokeGunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
- Four times - The RiflemanThe RiflemanThe Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
- Twice Episode 4 "The Marshal" (1958) and Episode 109 "Death Trap" (1960) - Cheyenne (TV series)Cheyenne (TV series)Cheyenne is a western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season...
- Episode "The Impostor" as Bill Magruder (1960) - Rawhide (TV series)Rawhide (TV series)Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
- Episode "Incident of the Night on the Town" as Rance (1961) - The VirginianThe Virginian (TV series)The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
(1962–1971) - Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In - Twice
- Firehouse (TV series)Firehouse (TV series)Firehouse was a short-lived ABC television series in early 1974. Somewhat derivative of Emergency! and the recent best-selling novel Report From Engine Co. 82 by FDNY fireman Dennis Smith, this drama/adventure series was set in Los Angeles at a small inner-city fire station...
(1974) - Walker, Texas RangerWalker, Texas RangerWalker, Texas Ranger is an American television action crime drama series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, and starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full...
- Three episodes as Captain Tom Price - The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. - Twice as Ethan Emerson
- Alias Smith and JonesAlias Smith and JonesAlias Smith and Jones is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, a pair of Western cousin outlaws trying to reform...
- Sheriff Lawm Trevors