James Drury

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.

Drury's professional acting career began when he was 12 years old, when he performed in a road company's production of Life with Father.

He signed a film contract with MGM in 1954 and appeared in bit parts in films. After he went to 20th Century Fox, he appeared in Love Me Tender (1956) and Bernardine (1957).

In 1959, Drury was cast as Harding, Jr., in the episode "Murder at the Mansion" on Richard Diamond, Private Detective. On May 9, 1959, early in his career, Drury appeared as Neal Adams in the episode "Client Neal Adams" of ABC's Western series Black Saddle.

On Christmas Eve 1959, Drury appeared in "Ten Feet of Nothing" on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. Drury portrayed a young miner, Joe Plato.

In 1960, Drury appeared in different roles in two episodes, "Fair Game" and "Vindication", of another ABC Western series, The Rebel, starring Nick Adams as a Confederate adventurer roaming through the post-Civil War American West. On November 16, 1960, Drury played young pioneer Justin Claiborne in the episode "The Bleymier Story" of NBC's Wagon Train. He was also cast in the 1960 Disney movie, Pollyanna as George Dodds, the love interest of Nancy Olson.

On February 7, 1957, Drury married Cristall Othones, and fathered two sons, Timothy and James Child 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. His son, Timothy Drury, is a keyboardist, guitarist, and vocalist who has played with the rock groups Eagles and Whitesnake.

Drury supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election.

River Invaders: The Scourge of Zebra Mussels (1994) — PBS special — host/narrator

Sturgeon: Ancient Survivors of the Deep (1995) — PBS special — host/narrator

A Vanishing Melody: The Call of the Piping Plover (1997) — PBS special