thevirginian

Keeping with the music theme, the guys also discuss the many advantages of having Bret Michael's immune system and explore the Eminem inspired term "Stan" on the New Slang segment.

James Child Drury, Jr. (born April 18, 1934) 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.Drury was born on April 18, 1934, in New York City, where his father James, Sr., was a New York University professor of marketing.[1] He grew up in both New York and Oregon. Drury contracted polio at the age of ten.

In 1959, Drury was cast as Harding, Jr., in the episode "Murder at the Mansion" of Richard Diamond, Private Detective.[2] 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. In the story line, Adams is an old friend of series protagonist Clay Culhane, a gunfighter-turned-lawyer played by Peter Breck. Adams has robbed a bank of $8,000 and was subsequently shot in the back by a pursuing bounty hunter, played by Charles Aidman. Adams asks Culhane for help and makes the false claim that the bounty hunter is the brother of a man whom Adams had earlier killed in self-defense.

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, broadcast just days after the death of series lead Ward Bond. Robert Horton as the scout Flint McCullough struggles to get a wagon train through a Sioux burial ground. Dan Duryea played the mentally unstable Samuel Bleymier who is obsessed by demons and superstitions.

In 1960, Drury portrayed Joe Darle in the episode "Wall of Silence" of the ABC/Warner Brothers detective series, Bourbon Street Beat, set in New Orleans and starring Andrew Duggan. He made a memorable guest appearance on the CBS drama series Perry Mason in 1961, as he played the role of musician and defendant Eddy King in "The Case of the Missing Melody," with Raymond Burr.He appeared in secondary roles for Walt Disney. In 1962, he was cast in a substantial role as a lascivious gold prospector in the early Sam Peckinpah western Ride the High Country opposite Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. Also, in 1962, Drury landed the top-billed leading role of the ranch foreman on The Virginian, a lavish series which ran for nine seasons.

In 1993, Drury had a guest-starring role as Captain Tom Price on the first three episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger, opposite Chuck Norris and Clarence Gilyard. 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 films and other television programs, including The Young Warriors and the TV cowboy reunion movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw with Doug McClure, who played the character Trampas during 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

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 rock groups The Eagles and Whitesnake. Drury was a close friend of the Houston marksman Joe Bowman, who trained numerous actors on how to use weapons. Drury is also the longtime best friend of both Robert Horton and Robert Fuller, since 1954, where the three met while under contract at MGM Studios. Together (along with Horton, until his final appearance in 2011, and 5 years before Horton died in March 2016), they attend the annual Festival of The West in Scottsdale, Arizona, among other Western Festivals.

Gary Clarke (born Clarke L'Amoreaux,[1][2] August 16, 1933)[3] is an American actor best known for his role as Steve Hill in the NBC western television series The Virginian with James Drury and Doug McClure.Clarke was born in Los Angeles, California,[3] of French and Mexican heritage, and grew up in the predominantly Chicano neighborhood of East Los Angeles.[1] While in high school, he began pursuing the idea of an acting career, and after graduation won a role in a community theater play in San Gabriel, California. This led to work in a series of plays in Glendale, California.[4] During this time, Clarke was working as a machinist in San Gabriel, as well as a newspaper deliveryman.Clarke began his screen career with the 1958 film Dragstrip Riot, recalling that agent Byron Griffith, who had seen him perform in Glendale, arranged for an audition that eventually led to his filling the lead role. Clarke recalled:

I drove from San Gabriel to Hollywood and read for the part, and I got in as a member of the good gang. I went back to work the next day and my agent called me again and he said, 'Gary, they have just lost the lead in the movie. Can you get down here?' Yes! So I ... went home [from work] and changed and went down, and I read every day for five days. I didn't go back to work, I just kept calling in sick.[4]

He went on to work in other films, including How to Make a Monster,[1] and Missile to the Moon (both 1958), Date Bait (1960),[3] and Passion Street, U.S.A. (1964).[7] He has said he was a contract player at Universal Pictures.[5]

In the 1960-1961 season, he appeared as Dick Hamilton in the single-season NBC television series Michael Shayne, based on the fictional private detective character created by Brett Halliday, opposite Richard Denning as the title character.[3] Afterward, he appeared as Tad Kimball, a friend of the character Jess Harper, played by Robert Fuller, in the episode "The Fatal Step" of the NBC Western series Laramie.

Clarke played Steve Hill in the cast of the long-running TV Western series The Virginian, remaining on the show from 1962 to 1964. His last TV series as a cast-member was the 1967 ABC Western Hondo, playing Captain Richards.[3]

Clarke said in an interview that his friend and co-star Steve Ihnat and he wrote the screenplay for director Ted V. Mikels' film Strike Me Deadly (1963),[5] though the film's credits list only Ihnat and Mikels. Later that decade, Clarke under his birth name wrote several scripts for the NBC espionage sitcom Get Smart.[3]

In the 1980s and 1990s, he wrote and produced television public-service announcements including "Youth at Risk", narrated nonfiction short films including "Promoting Healthy Behavior", and appeared in TV series including Dynasty and The Young Riders, in which he had a four-episode recurring role. His films in the 2010s include The Paperboy (2012) and Parkland (2013).[8]

In 2014, the production company L’Amoreaux/Bartlett/Race/Thomas sought actors for an independent TV pilot, Bandits and Tadpoles, written by Bartlett and Thomas and directed by Clarke, about a young boy whose daydreams put him in the American Old West of the Owen Wister novel The Virginian.[9] It filmed June 26–30, 2014, in the Austin, Texas, area, under the title Billy and the Bandit, with a cast including James Drury and Roberta Shore, from Clarke's old TV series The Virginian; 11-year-old Jordan Elsass as Billy; Ava L'Amoreaux and Donny Boaz as his parents; and Buck Taylor as a ranch foreman.While a cast-member of Michael Shayne, Clarke released the single "Tomorrow May Never Come", backed with "One Way Ticket", for RCA Victor Records. While on The Virginian, he sang a cover of the theme song, backed with "One Summer in a Million", for Decca RecordsIn July 2003, Clarke and Drury, along with two other The Virginian costars, Roberta Shore and singer Randy Boone, were guests at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina.[citation needed]

Clarke was a teenager when he married his first wife, and the couple had three boys within three years.[4] Clarke's second wife was Petticoat Junction actress Pat Woodell, but they later divorced.[11]

Clarke also has a daughter, Ava L’Amoreaux.

As of at least 2011, Clarke resides in Austin, Texa