Drury was born in New York City, the son of James Child Drury and Beatrice Crawford Drury. His father was a New York University professor of marketing at New York University. He grew up in both New York and Oregon. Drury contracted polio at the age of ten.

He studied drama at New York University and took additional classes at UCLA to complete his degree after he began acting in films at MGM.

Info provided by Wikipedia.org