James Drury
Actor
Biography
James Child Drury Jr. (April 18, 1934 – April 6, 2020) was an American actor. He is best known for having played the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series The Virginian, which was broadcast on NBC from 1962 to 1971.
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.
He studied drama at New York University and took additional classes at UCLA to complete his degree after he began acting in films at MGM.
On February 7, 1957, Drury married Cristall Othones, and fathered two sons, Timothy and James III. The couple divorced on November 23, 1964 and on April 27, 1968, he married Phyllis Jacqueline Mitchell; the marriage ended in divorce on January 30, 1979. 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.
Filmography
Forbidden Planet
as Crewman Strong 1956
Ride the High Country
as Billy Hammond 1962
Pollyanna
as George Dodds 1960
Blackboard Jungle
as Hospital Attendant (uncredited) 1955
Love Me Tender
as Ray Reno 1956
The Last Wagon
1956
Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus
as Jim Weaver 1960
Good Day for a Hanging
as Paul Ridgely 1959
The Meanest Men in the West
as The Range Boss (The Virginian) 1978
Diane
as Lieutenant (uncredited) 1956
The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw
as Jim 1991
The Bull of the West
as Man from Virginia 1972
Ten Who Dared
as Walter Powell 1960
The Virginian
as Rider 2000
Bernardine
as Langley Philip Beaymont 1957
Backtrack!
as Ramrod (archive footage) 1969