James Child Drury

James Child Drury

James Child Drury’s net worth is $1.5 Million. Also know about James Child Drury bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship, and more …

James Child Drury Wiki Biography

  • James Child Drury, Jr. was born on April 18, 1934, in Manhattan, New York City, USA, and is a retired actor best known for his role as the main character in the NBC channel’s 90-minute Western TV series “The Virginian” (1962-1971). 
  • He also starred in a number of other films and television shows, including “Forbidden Planet” (1956) and “Ride The High Country” (1962). 
  • From 1955 to 2005, he was involved in the acting world. 
  • Have you ever wondered how wealthy James Drury is right now? 
  • According to reputable sources, James’ gross net worth is estimated to be $1.5 million, with his active role in the film industry as a professional actor serving as the primary source of income. 
  • James Drury was raised in New York City by his father, New York University professor James Drury, Sr. He also spent some of his childhood on a family ranch in Oregon. 
  • His career began in 1955, with roles in films such as “The Tender Trap,” starring Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds, and “Forbidden Planet,” starring Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, and Anne Francis. 
  • He appeared in a number of TV series in brief roles during the 1950s, including “Playhouse 90” (1958), “Man Without a Gun” (1958), “The Texan” (1958), “Steve Canyon” (1959), “Men Into Space” (1959), and many others, all of which contributed to his net worth and helped him establish his reputation as an actor. 
  • When he was cast as The Virginian in the TV series of the same name in 1962, his career took a turn for the better. 
  • The show lasted until 1971, with 243 90-minute episodes. 
  • James’ career was greatly improved as a result of the show’s success, but he remained focused on other endeavors, and during the run of the show, he starred in films such as “Ride The High Country” (1962), “The Young Warriors” (1967), and “Breakout” (1970), all of which contributed to his net worth. 
  • After the show ended, he landed a role as Captain Spike Ryerson in the TV series “Firehouse” (1974). 
  • James won many prestigious awards for his work on the TV series “The Virginian,” including the Golden Boot Award in 1995 and the Bronze Wrangler from the Western Heritage Awards. 
  • James Drury has been married to Carl Ann Head since 1979 when it comes to his personal life. 
  • He was previously married twice, first to Cristall Othoneos (Orton) from 1957 to 1964, with whom he had two sons, and then to Phyllis Mitchell from 1964 to 1977. 
  • Timothy Drury, a guitarist and member of the band Whitesnake, is one of his two sons who is well-known in the media. 
  • James is married to his third wife and lives in Houston, Texas. 
  • He also loves horseback riding in his spare time. 
  • Wikipedia $1.5 million IMDB 18-04-1934 United States of America Cristall Orton Carl Ann Head Sons of Cristall Orton Drury, James Drury, James New York City, New Sr. Timothy Drury USA, Phyllis Mitchell producer 

James Child Drury Quick Info

Full Name James Drury
Net Worth $1.5 Million
Date Of Birth 1934-04-18
Place Of Birth New York City, New York, USA
Height 1.83 m
Profession Producer
Education New York University
Nationality American
Spouse Cristall Orton, Carl Ann Head, Phyllis Mitchell
Children Timothy Drury
Parents James Drury, Sr.
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/jamesdrurythevirginianII
IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0238628/
Movies Ride the High Country, Pollyanna, Love Me Tender, Forbidden Planet, Ten Who Dared, The Young Warriors, The Last Wagon, The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, Toby Tyler, Good Day for a Hanging, The Bull of the West, When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion, The Meanest Men in the West, Backtrack…
TV Shows Firehouse, The Virginian

James Child Drury Trademarks

  1. Smoky, gravelly voice.
  2. His Virginian character.

James Child Drury Quotes

  • I’ve been riding horses since I was in diapers. My grandfather put me on his Belgian plow horse when I was just a toddler. The animal was so broad, my legs stuck straight out on both sides like I was doing the splits. It’s one of my earliest memories.
  • [About his hometown]: Texas has been good to me. I’ve worked with many great horse trainers here and up through Oklahoma. I love it all – the dust, the sweat, the sunshine and the smell of the horses.
  • I was able to accomplish just about everything I set out to do as an actor.
  • [As to why it was impossible for himself to appear in each and every episode of The Virginian (1962)]: The majority of…episodes were shot in eight days. When we started out, they took about ten days. They decided they couldn’t afford that much time because we aired the episodes every five days (excluding weekends). To keep up with the airing schedule, we had to run multiple units–as many as four or five different episodes filming at the same time. I would ride my horse or take the studio limousine back and forth between the sets to do my two line piece in one episode, ten pages of dialogue in another episode, do a cattle drive in another episode, a wild horse drive in another, and then a gunfight and a robbery in yet another episode. I had to keep everything straight and it was absolutely no problem and a joy to do. I would do it all over again tomorrow.
  • I started acting at age eight. I was forced to do a play in Manhattan and was cast as King Henry in a bible play. When people began clapping at the end of the play, I realized there was nothing I wanted more than to be on the stage.
  • [When he began as an unfamiliar actor]: I signed a contract with 20th century fox and did a series of films with them, was Love Me Tender with Elvis Presley. That was a great moment.
  • [Who spent most of his childhood in both New York and Oregon]: I was under care of my maternal grandfather who had come west with a wagon train when he was about 16. He told me about the Indians fights the wagon train was involved in and all the other different things that happened. So I had a real pipeline into the Old West.
  • [on his Texas residence]: Texas has been good to me. I’ve worked with many great horse trainers here and up through Oklahoma. I love it all – the dust, the sweat, the sunshine and the smell of the horses.
  • [about the popularity of The Virginian (1962)]: It was the first 90-minute Western on TV, and that gave our writers an opportunity to explore detailed stories,” he said. “It was like doing a movie every week. We also had a wonderful cast of continuing characters, and with the great writing, the finest actors in Hollywood wanted guest starring roles – George C. Scott, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Robert Redford come to mind. Every day I’d go off to the set excited about the wonderful actors I’d be working with.
  • [Of Robert Fuller] He’s really a magnificent, gifted actor and a fine professional, and he was able to work with these people very effectively in all those different series that he did, and I had nothing but admiration for him; he’s one of my best friends, so it’s nice that we’re still in contact and quite often.
  • [on giving out acting advice] I think it’s more of a question than listening to the other actors, because if you listen, they want to find out what you’re going to do. By no means, trying to upstage anyone or anything like that, just listening to what they’re saying and the eyes will come because of the anticipation, it’s what you’re going to respond.
  • [When asked if he knew Julie London through his best friend Robert Fuller] No, I had known Bobby Troup, her husband, very well, [we’d] done several shows together. But I never really knew Julie, except just to meet her. Bobby [Fuller] became their very lifelong friend . . . but I never spent any time on the road with her, [although] I think Bobby Fuller did. Bobby Troup and I did Perry Mason (1957) and we did several other shows before he ever started Emergency! (1972). It was a family affair on “Emergency!” except for Fuller, and he didn’t really want to do a modern show, he wanted to do another western, but Jack Webb [the producer of “Emergency!”] talked him into it or insisted that he do it, and he was [eventually] very happy, because it was a great success and he had a wonderful time with Julie London and . . . Bobby Troup.
  • [on the death of Doug McClure] He was very instrumental in the success of the show and probably the best friend I ever had, and we lost him. He died too young, he was only 59, but you think about him everyday.
  • Owen Wister designed the character in 1902 when he came out with the novel, without a name. So you automatically assumed ‘The Virginian’ has some secrets [he’d rather not divulge], and there’s an aura [that an] actor who plays the part carries with him as he comes through the door.
  • I was a brand-new contract player at MGM in 1954, and I was 20 years old, and the studio undertook to make a property called “Raintree County” [eventually made as Raintree County (1957)], with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. And I wanted the Montgomery Clift role much, and I told everybody about it that I wanted to play. I read the book, and I thought it was a wonderful role and I wanted to play. Obviously, nobody listened to me, Montgomery Clift played the role, and did a great job, but I always regretted that I didn’t get a chance at that, because I like the property, the property gave me goosebumps when I read it, and I wanted to participate putting it on film. It was not to be and I had no regrets about it. I was very disappointed at the time that I couldn’t make any headway, but that’s the way life is.
  • [referring to his title role on The Virginian (1962)] Nobody knows the name of my character. Not even me.

James Child Drury Important Facts

  • Friends with: Robert Fuller, John Smith, Doug McClure, Adam West, Alan Hale Jr., Michael Landon, James Arness, Clu Gulager, James Best, Denver Pyle, Chuck Norris, Bobby Troup, Beverly Garland, Clint Walker, Andy Griffith, Larry Hagman, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, Lorne Greene, Don Collier, Barbara Stanwyck, Linda Evans, Lee Majors, Brian Keith, Peter Mark Richman, Claude Akins, Hugh O’Brian, Chuck Courtney, Robert Horton, Alex Cord, Abby Dalton, Ruta Lee, Chuck Connors, Robert Crawford Jr. and his brother Johnny Crawford, Yul Brynner, James Gregory, Raymond Burr, Joel McCrea, John McIntire, Terry Wilson, Denny Miller, Bernie Kopell, Dan Haggerty, Roberta Shore, Julie Adams, L.Q. Jones and Robert Conrad.
  • Credits Lee J. Cobb as his favorite acting mentor/best friend.
  • He is widely known to be a social butterfly.
  • He is a staunch Republican.
  • Surrogate son of Lee J. Cobb.
  • His acting mentor was the late Lee J. Cobb.
  • Went to college with Bernie Kopell.
  • Has been riding horses since birth.
  • Since 1976 he has resided in Houston, TX.
  • Despite staying on The Virginian (1962) for the entire run, it was impossible for both Drury and Doug McClure to appear in all 249 episodes, because it was a 90-minute show.
  • Met Robert Horton and Robert Fuller when the three were under contract at MGM in 1954.
  • His idols when he was very young were Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea and Jane Wyman.
  • Guest-starred on the first three episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993).
  • He was a guest at the 2012 Memphis Film Festival’s “A Gathering of Guns 4: A TV Western Reunion” at the Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center in Olive Branch, Mississippi.
  • Best known by the public for his starring role as the title character in The Virginian (1962).
  • The son of a New York University professor of marketing, he was born in New York City but later grew up on a ranch in Oregon where he developed an affinity for horses and the outdoor life.
  • In 1997 and 2003 he was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, NC. At the 2003 show he was reunited with The Virginian (1962) cast members Gary Clarke, Randy Boone, and Roberta Shore.
  • Son Timothy Drury is a keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist who has played with The Eagles and is a member of the British group Whitesnake.
  • Settled in Houston in the mid-1970s and has been in and out of the oil and natural gas business since.
  • Recorded a series of novels by acclaimed western author Kirby Jonas for a books-on-tape company called Books in Motion.
  • Trained as a classical actor at New York University by perform in works by such writers as William Shakespeare to George Bernard Shaw, he eventually relocated to California.
  • In 1971 he appeared in Finland for four appearances in different Mid-Summer festivals. At the time he was very popular there after having been in the TV series The Virginian (1962). He was told that kind of reception he got in Finland was like Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra got in the US.
  • Father of Timothy Drury, musician.
  • Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1991.
  • Following bit parts in films in the late ’50s, he became a “second lead” for Disney until winning the title role of The Virginian (1962).

James Child Drury Filmography

Title Year Status Character Role
Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color 1959 TV Series Deputy Joe Monroe Actor
Zane Grey Theater 1958-1959 TV Series Roy Richards / Jess McHugh Actor
Good Day for a Hanging 1959 Paul Ridgely Actor
Bronco 1958 TV Series John Smith Actor
Flight 1958 TV Series Actor
The Texan 1958 TV Series Johnny Kaler Actor
The Silent Service 1958 TV Series Masters Actor
Bitter Heritage 1958 TV Movie Jesse James, Jr. Actor
Decision 1958 TV Series The Virginian Actor
The Walter Winchell File 1958 TV Series Eddie Perkins Actor
Man Without a Gun 1958 TV Series Cort Hamish Actor
Broken Arrow 1958 TV Series Tahzay Actor
Playhouse 90 1958 TV Series Jesse James Actor
Alfred Hitchcock Presents 1958 TV Series Michael Grimes Actor
Bernardine 1957 Lt. Langley Beaumont Actor
Love Me Tender 1956 Ray Reno Actor
The Last Wagon 1956 Lt. Kelly Actor
Forbidden Planet 1956 Crewman Strong Actor
The 20th Century-Fox Hour 1956 TV Series Anton Cavrek Actor
Diane 1956 Lieutenant (uncredited) Actor
The Tender Trap 1955 Eddie Actor
Cameo Theatre 1955 TV Series Actor
Love Me or Leave Me 1955 Assistant Director (uncredited) Actor
Blackboard Jungle 1955 Hospital Attendant (uncredited) Actor
Billy and the Bandit TV Movie post-production Grandpa Actor
Hell to Pay 2005 JT Coffee Actor
The Virginian 2000 TV Movie Rider Actor
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues 1995-1996 TV Series Doctor / Deacon Actor
Maverick 1994 Riverboat Poker Player (uncredited) Actor
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. 1993-1994 TV Series Ethan Emerson Actor
Walker, Texas Ranger 1993 TV Series Captain Tom Price Actor
The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw 1991 TV Movie Jim Actor
The All American Cowboy 1985 TV Movie Host / Marshal Actor
The Fall Guy 1983 TV Series The Virginian Actor
Firehouse 1974 TV Series Captain Spike Ryerson Actor
Alias Smith and Jones 1971-1972 TV Series Sheriff Tankersley / Sheriff Lom Trevors Actor
The Devil and Miss Sarah 1971 TV Movie Gil Turner Actor
Ironside 1971 TV Series Al Actor
The Virginian 1962-1971 TV Series The Virginian Actor
The Red Skelton Hour 1971 TV Series Auctioneer Actor
Breakout 1970 TV Movie Joe Baker Actor
It Takes a Thief 1968 TV Series Mr. Clifton, Ticket Agent Actor
The Young Warriors 1966 Sergeant Cooley Actor
Ride the High Country 1962 Billy Hammond Actor
Third of a Man 1962 Emmet Actor
Wagon Train 1960-1962 TV Series Cole Crawford / Justin Claiborne Actor
The Detectives 1962 TV Series Adrian Actor
Perry Mason 1961 TV Series Eddy King Actor
Rawhide 1959-1961 TV Series Rance / Johnny Adler / Kenley Actor
Stagecoach West 1961 TV Series Stace Actor
The Rifleman 1958-1961 TV Series Spicer / Lloyd Carpenter Actor
Michael Shayne 1961 TV Series Eddie Actor
The Loretta Young Show 1960-1961 TV Series Bob Prentiss / Tony Actor
Gunsmoke 1955-1961 TV Series Tom / Johnny Red / Jerry Cass / … Actor
The Rebel 1960 TV Series Paul Travers / Bert Pace Actor
Ten Who Dared 1960 Walter Powell Actor
Pollyanna 1960 George Dodds Actor
Bourbon Street Beat 1960 TV Series Joe Darle Actor
Lock Up 1960 TV Series Frank Crotty Actor
Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus 1960 Jim Weaver Actor
Men Into Space 1960 TV Series Maj. Nick Alborg Actor
The Yank 1960 TV Movie Mathew Dorn Actor
Death Valley Days 1959 TV Series Joe Plato Actor
Cheyenne 1959 TV Series Bill Magruder Actor
Steve Canyon 1959 TV Series Lt. Richard Muller Actor
Black Saddle 1959 TV Series Neal Adams Actor
Lawman 1959 TV Series Clay / Stan Bates Actor
Richard Diamond, Private Detective 1959 TV Series Harding Jr. Actor
Trackdown 1959 TV Series John Ward Actor
Have Gun – Will Travel 1959 TV Series Tony DeVries Actor
In the Bunkhouse with Red Steagall 2009 TV Series Himself Self
Way Out West 1996 TV Movie documentary Himself Self
When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion 1979 TV Movie documentary Himself Self
Mel Tillis Time 1974 TV Series Himself Self
Mies Shiloh’sta 1971 TV Movie documentary Himself Self
The Hollywood Squares 1967-1970 TV Series Himself – Panelist Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 1968-1970 TV Series Himself Self
The Mike Douglas Show 1969 TV Series Himself Self
The David Frost Show 1969 TV Series Himself Self
Laugh-In 1969 TV Series Himself Self
The Bob Hope Show 1967 TV Series Himself Self
Dateline: Hollywood 1967 TV Series Himself Self
That Regis Philbin Show 1965 TV Series Himself Self
Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 2 1999 TV Special documentary Himself (uncredited) Archive Footage
The Meanest Men in the West 1978 TV Movie The Range Boss (The Virginian) Archive Footage
America at the Movies 1976 Documentary Billy Hammond (uncredited) Archive Footage
The Bull of the West 1972 TV Movie Man from Virginia Archive Footage
Backtrack! 1969 Ramrod Archive Footage
Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color 1963-1968 TV Series George Dodds / Jim Weaver / Walter Powell Archive Footage
The Final Hour 1965 The Virginian Archive Footage
The Devil’s Children 1962 The Virginian Archive Footage
The Brazen Bell 1962 The Virginian Archive Footage
Frontier Justice 1958 TV Series Jess McHugh Archive Footage

James Child Drury Awards

Year Award Ceremony Nomination Movie Category
1995 Golden Boot Golden Boot Awards Won
1966 Bronze Wrangler Western Heritage Awards Fictional Television Drama The Virginian (1962) Won
1995 Golden Boot Golden Boot Awards Nominated
1966 Bronze Wrangler Western Heritage Awards Fictional Television Drama The Virginian (1962) Nominated