Jul 23, 2010 · James Drury's first screen appearance. Glenn Ford, Anne Francis
Gary Cooper once played Wister’s hero on the screen, and more recently Bill Pullman, but for most of us, James Drury is The Virginian. The New York-trained actor played the title role for nine years in NBC’s 90-minute television Western. Starring Drury and Doug McClure (who died of lung cancer in 1995), the show was a hit from the time it ...
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James Drury. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to navigation Jump to search. For the Irish soldier who fought in the American Civil War, see James Drury (soldier). For the English-born British Virgin Islands footballer, see James Drury (footballer). American actor (1934–2020)
Early years. Drury was born in New York City, the son of James Child Drury and Beatrice Crawford Drury. His father was a New York University professor of marketing. He grew up between New York City and Salem, Oregon, where his mother owned a farm. Drury contracted polio at the age of 10.
His third marriage was to Carl Ann Head on July 30, 1979; it lasted until her death on August 25, 2019. Drury had three stepchildren from his previous marriages, a stepdaughter, Rhonda Brown, and two stepsons, Frederick Drury and Gary Schero. Drury died from natural causes on April 6, 2020.
Drury and his Wilshire Boulevard Buffalo Hunters band performed 54 USO -sponsored shows for troops in Vietnam in three weeks in April 1966. In a sequel to The Virginian, Drury continued his title role in The Men from Shiloh on NBC (1970–1971).:981 .
Drury was put under a 7-year contract with Universal in 1962, and was the front-runner for the role, but he still had to audition three separate times and was required to lose 30 pounds in 30 days to secure the part.
In 1959, Drury was cast as Harding, Jr., in the episode "Murder at the Mansion" on Richard Diamond, Private Detective.
In 1991, Drury was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. In 1997 and 2003, he was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina.
When Owen Wister published The Virginian in 1902, he created the quintessential fictional Western hero (more than 60 years before Clint Eastwood made The Man With No Name popular) and gave birth to an American literary genre. Gary Cooper once played Wister’s hero on the screen, and more recently Bill Pullman, but for most of us, James Drury is The Virginian.
Gary Cooper once played Wister’s hero on the screen, and more recently Bill Pullman, but for most of us, James Drury is The Virginian. The New York-trained actor played the title role for nine years in NBC’s 90-minute television Western. Starring Drury and Doug McClure (who died of lung cancer in 1995), the show was a hit from the time it debuted.
Starring Drury and Doug McClure (who died of lung cancer in 1995), the show was a hit from the time it debuted. More than 200 episodes of The Virginian were filmed from 1962 to 1971, shooting the last season under the new title The Men From Shiloh. Since The Virginian, Drury has been relegated to TV guest spots.
Far from bitter over the lack of acting jobs, Drury is also far from retired. He has a variety of business interests, is narrating several Kirby Jonas’ Western novels on tape and is actively involved in celebrity cattle-cutting events as well as the Single Action Shooting Society.