Talk:The Virginian (character)

Merger proposal
According to WP:BKD, "it is not normally advisable to have a separate article on a character or thing from the book, and it is often the case [...] despite the book being manifestly notable". I propose that The Virginian (character) be merged into The Virginian (novel). I think that the content in the character article can easily be explained in the novel article. Guoguo12  (Talk)  17:51, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

See Talk:The_Virginian_(novel) for discussion. (This is the wrong venue.) Guoguo12   (Talk)  17:54, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

"made for the part"?
It took Wikipedia's editors several years to convince me that personal opinions have little place here. Granted, they're sometimes more perceptive than those of "experts", but you can't have these articles littered with anyone and everyone's POV's.

The case in point is the writer's utterly indefensible statement that "James Drury seemed made for the part". Has the writer actually read the novel? The Virginian is a "Southern gentleman", which Drury utterly fails to convey. This is hardly surprising, because the TV series bears only the most superficial resemblance to the novel, its only points of similarity being the name of the eponymous protagonist, and the presence of Judge Henry. Doug McClure is no more Trampas than Howdy Doody is Satan.

There have been several films of The Virginian, the best-known the one with Gary Cooper. But Coop's "aw, shucks" persona is hardly representative of a character who's a "natural leader of men", and has a sly and subtle -- sometimes downright wicked -- wit. There are two actors who might have successfully assayed the role, and one wonders why no movie was made with either. One is Randolph Scott, who actually was of Southern extraction. (Scott supposedly coached Cooper on the proper accent.) The other is Sam Elliot, who looks the way I (and I suspect most people) imagine the character. (Elliot has the acting chops, but he's 30 years too old for the role.)

I urge the editors to remove James Drury's picture, simply because the character in the Universal series bears little similarity to the literary character. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 23:19, 16 March 2012 (UTC)