Ninety years ago, Paramount released “The Virginian,” starring Gary Cooper. The 1929 western, Cooper’s first talkie film, was based on the 1902 novel by Owen Wister.
“I read the book in high school so was well aware of the story,” James Drury said from his home in Houston. But young Jim never imagined he would portray the role of the unnamed cattle ranch cowboy himself, decades later in a long-running western TV series during the 1960s.
The enduring popularity of “The Virginian,” originally airing on NBC from 1962 to 1971 and currently rerunning on several cable networks, doesn’t surprise 85-year-old Drury (see www.thevirginian.net).
“It still holds up,” he said. “The old westerns were morality plays that showed the triumph of good over evil, and I think that's important for young people to see onscreen these days because it will inspire them to live their lives that way.”
An astonishing parade of notable guest stars on most episodes also contributed to the show’s success.
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“Episodes were 90 minutes, the writing brilliantly told appealing stories and big movie stars would walk over broken glass to appear on the show,” explained Drury. “We had people like George C. Scott, Yvonne De Carlo, Vera Miles, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.”
Despite their reputations for being difficult to work with, Drury said, Davis and Crawford were delightful.
“Bette Davis was just wonderful, and she became very fond of me and my (first) wife,” he recalled. “She even took us to dinner a couple of times at Chasen's restaurant. She kept in touch by phone to see how things were going.”
Drury says Crawford was “easy to work with and as sweet as she could be.” The actress, whose late husband had been CEO of Pepsi-Cola, which includes Frito-Lay, was on the company’s board of directors.
“She had a big cooler of Pepsi and all kinds of Frito-Lay products on the set all the time for everybody, which was very nice of her, I thought,” Drury said.
Davis guest-starred in a first-season episode, but when Crawford appeared in Season 8, Drury says, Davis’ attitude toward him changed.
“That famous feud between them— it was real, I tell you!” he noted. “After Joan Crawford was cast in the show, I never heard from Bette Davis again. I wasn’t involved in the casting, but she just wouldn’t have anything to do with me for working with Joan Crawford.”
As foreman of the show’s Shiloh Ranch set in Medicine Bow, Wyo., Drury’s character answered to the ranch’s owner, played by several actors throughout the series.
“Lee J. Cobb was the first and left during the fourth season,” Drury said. “I enjoyed working with him. He brought all those years as a Hollywood star to the role, but he hated the show. He was making a ton of money from the series, then just quit. He did an interview saying he thought the show was terrible and wished he could buy up all the film and turn it into banjo picks! But I think he would have been gratified to know the longevity the show has had.”
Cobb was replaced by veteran supporting film actor Charles Bickford.
“We had John Dehner for a short time, then Charles came along and he did just a wonderful job,” recalled Drury. “He loved the show and told me he wished he had been on from the beginning. But he died unexpectedly (during Season 6). We finished the show on a Friday night about midnight, and it was a bitterly cold evening. He wasn’t well and everybody wanted him to go home, but he insisted on finishing his part and staying around. It turned into pneumonia, and he died Sunday morning. As an actor, that's probably how he would have liked to have gone out.”
Well-admired character actor John McIntire was hired to complete the sixth season.
“After Charles passed on, we got John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan to run the ranch, who were actually husband and wife and often worked together. They did very well, and John was perfect in every scene I ever saw him do. We actually made a pilot together for a series called ‘The Yank,’ a spinoff of 'The Rebel' with Nick Adams. It was about a Yankee doctor who comes to the South after the Civil War but never sold.”
The final and ninth season saw major overhauls, including a new name and theme, and Stewart Granger was brought in.
“He was a disaster, and I couldn't stand him,” admitted Drury. “He wanted everything changed to make him the star of the show. But guess what— the name of the show is ‘The Virginian’! He also fired the whole camera crew and hired a new crew for his episodes. I had a crew that have been with me for years and included an Academy Award-winning cameraman. So that put my crew out of work when we filmed his episodes.”
And then there was Doug McClure, playing fellow ranch hand Trampas. A villain in the original book and 1929 movie, the writers transformed him into a high-spirited and often comedic character in the series.
“Off-screen, Doug was quite like his character, and you couldn’t help but smile when he walked into a room because he was full of good humor and good spirits all the time,” recalled Drury. “He could cheer anybody up.”
Drury and McClure were the only cast to appear throughout all nine seasons.
“I knew Doug just casually at high school; I think he was a year behind me. He was involved in sports and me in theater, so we hardly ever crossed paths. But as the series progressed, he became my best friend, and I still miss him terribly. You couldn't ask for a better guy co-star.”
Despite working with a mostly great cast and crew, Drury says filming “The Virginian” was extremely tough.
“Some days, we would be filming parts of five different episodes, so it required a lot of mental concentration.”
But he didn’t mind. “I did the show for nine years, but would have been delighted to continue for another 10.”
A familiar and popular guest for years on the western convention and autograph circuit, Drury has been cutting back on travel.
“My wife is not well and I'm her personal caregiver, so I'm involved looking after her.”
He appreciates the well-wishes from fans and especially enjoys hearing their memories of “The Virginian.”
“People now tell me about their grandkids who discover the show on cable and start watching it,” he says. “It’s a wonderful feeling to know the show is still viable after all these years.”
Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala., and has written features, columns, and interviews for more than 700 magazines and newspapers. Visit www.getnick.org.
