The Only Main Actors Still Alive From The Virginian

After “Gunsmoke” paved the way for adult westerns on televisionThe valves opened with each network trying to overcome the wave of success with their own planes like “Rawhide”, “Bonanza” and “Wagon Train”. The head of them was “The Virginian”, which holds the honor of being the third oldest network west of all time. The NBC series took place for nine seasons and 249 episodes from 1962 to 1971. The distinction it sits on most of its cowboy television counterparts is that it was the first Western series of 90 minutes, with episodes taking place for 75 minutes more advertisements.

Logly based on Owen Wister’s novel in 1902 “The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains”, “The Virginian” had been adapted four times in feature films, with The version featuring Gary Cooper considered among his best films. Almost three decades later, James Drury carried out a road test for the character in a 1958 episode in the half-hour anthology series. Considerable changes have been made to this character version; Being the cause of Confederate sympathies, he became the foreman of a property of Wyoming called The Shiloh Ranch. Throughout his nine season race, the virginian holder would mysteriously get a name or background, and he often worked under a share of Ranch owners.

The western of the end of the 19th century alternate its plaster list throughout its lifespan. Most of the actors have unfortunately died over time since its cancellation in the early 1970s. Charles Bickford (John Grainger) was the only player to go while the show was in the air, having died of pneumonia in 1967 to 76 years. After the issue of the show, Lee J. Cobb (Judge Garth) died of a heart attack in 1976 at 64. John Mcintire (Clay Grainger) fell ill of emphysema and died in 1991 at 83 years old. Doug McClure (trampas) died of lung cancer a few years later in 1995 at 59 years. The series of the James Drury series (The Virginian) died of natural causes in 2020 to 85 years, as was Clu Gulager (Sheriff Ryker) in 2022 with 93. Sara Lane (Elizabeth Grainger) was the most recent former “Virginian” on death at the time of writing, having died of breast cancer in 2023 at 73.

As would happen, however, given the rotation of the actors of the series, there are still a lot of former students of “The Virginian” who stay with us.

Gary Clarke appeared in the early years on “The Virginian” as Steve Hill, a good friend of the trampas of McClure and the hand of the Drury holder. The character would be a pillar in the first two seasons, would become a star guest in the third season, then leave the series with 63 episodes to his credit. A lot of Clarke’s time in the industry has been spent on invited spots in series like “Alfred Hitchcock presents”, “Laramie”, “Wagon Train”, “Gunsmoke”, “Cannon”, “Dynasty” and “The A-Team”, among countless others. He also had recurring roles on the series of spy parody “Get Smart” (of which he also wrote six episodes), The often forgotten television version of John Wayne’s film “Hondo” ,,,, “ And the detective drama “Michael Shayne”, which has presented the most episodes of all the programs he has been a part since “The Virginian”. Clarke’s television production would slow the 90s once.

Regarding the Silver Screen, Clarke especially played in B films and operating images. His first main role was in Hot Rod’s film “Dragstrip Riot” in 1958, but it generally appeared to a support capacity with a low budget price like “How to Making A Monster”, “” MOO missile “,” Cat-Women of the Moon “,” Date Bait “and” Wild Winter “Wild. The last role to date being an independent horror thriller in 2025 Entitled “House of Abraham” alongside the star of “Insidious” Lin Shaye.

Clarke also had a short -lived musical career in 1962 with the single “Tomorrow May Never” for RCA Victor Records, in addition to publishing a coverage of the “Virginian” theme song the following year for Decca Records.

“The Virginian” was best known to have many male tracks, which made the presence of Roberta Shore as one of the rare female tracks even more important. During the first four seasons, she played Betsy, the adopted girl of Lee J. Cobb judge. Betsy has often been taken care of by Clarke, Steve and McClure trampas, who came to his help with annoying times. Shore ultimately left the series only a few episodes in season 4; His latest episode was “The Awakening”, where his marriage to a minister prompted his shounting factory of the Shiloh Ranch after 70 episodes.

Before “The Virginian”, the shore initially went through its birth name, Roberta Jymme Schourop, and sang with Country-Williams Country-Williams singer in her program at Knott’s Berry Farm at only 10 years old. The young starlet would eventually find her way to television space with recurring roles on “Annette”, “Father Knows Best”, “The Mickey Mouse Club” (but not as Mousketeer), “The Bob Cummings Show” and “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”. In addition, she would make punctual appearances in programs such as “Maverick”, “The Donna Reed Show” and “Laramie”.

1959 was a year busy for shore, because its production on the big screen included the Disney animal comedy “The Shaggy Dog”, a film adaptation of the Broadway show “Blue Denim” and a cameo in the romantic drama “A Summer Place”. It should also be noted that it has a role not credited in The provocative adaptation of Stanley Kubrick in 1962 of “Lolita”.

Once Shore left “the Virginian” in 1965, however, she also said goodbye to industry as a whole at only 21 to become Mormon and build her family during the remaining decades. Shore’s latest known wallpaper is “The Book of Mormon Movie, Volume 1: The Journey”.

For the second, third and fourth seasons of “The Virginian”, Randy Boone played Randy Benton, a Ranch hand that would feel lost without his guitar. The character was considered the replacement of Gary Clarke. Boone entered the series by abandoning university and hitchhiking through the United States, playing his guitar. His talents were finally discovered in 1962 when he was thrown on the series of NBC dramatics “It’s a Man’s World” like Vern, a student living on a barge in the Ohio river.

Boone caught a few guest places on “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour”, “The Twilight Zone” and “Wagon Train” before winning the role of Benton. After playing the hand of the singing ranch for 70 episodes on “The Virginian”, however, Boone made unique appearances on “Combat!,” Bonanza “,” Hondo “,” Gunsmoke “,” Kung Fu “,” Kolchak: The Night Stalker “and Michael Landon Angelic Drama” Highway to Heaven “.

The only other television series in which Boone met was the CBS Western “Cimarron Strip” with Stuart Whitman in 1967 as a journalist Francis Wilde. The latest known screen credit from Boone is an action comedy from 1987 led by Beau Bridges called “The Wild Pair”, and it has not been involved in the industry since.

Don Quine joined “The Virginian” for the fifth and sixth seasons of the show as Stacey Graining, the grandson of John Graining, who would often be considered a figure of the big brother of Elizabeth de Sara Lane. Regarding the career as an actor of Quine, he mainly stuck on television, except the strange TV movie here and there. Like most actors, he made appearances in shows such as “Rawhide”, “Dr. Kildare”, “The Fugitive”, “The FBI”, “Launch” and “Hawaii Five-0”. Aside “The Virginian”, his only other recurring role was Joe Chernak on the soap for the late 1960s “Peyton Place”.

Apart from his acting career, Quine brought kickboxing to the American public by co-founding the Professional Karate Association (PKA) in 1974. He has been since the author of books like “American Karate” and “Killer Payback”, the first in a series of books entitled “Venture’s Nest”.