The James Brolin Story

Key Takeaways

• Brolin played a former preacher in Gunsmoke: The Long Ride
• Brolin had a side-gig as a racecar driver
• Brolin met Barbra Streisand on a blind date

His Younger Years

James Brolin was born Craig Kenneth Bruderlin on July 18, 1940, in Los Angeles to parents Helen, a stay-at-home mom to James and his three younger siblings, and Henry, a building contractor. As a young boy, Brolin was fascinated by animals and model airplanes, but something shifted when, as a teenager, he became an avid James Dean fan. Soon, he turned to acting. He met classmate Ryan O’Neal and the two became fast friends.

The Fledgling Actor

When he started out, Brolin was painfully shy, and his acting was stilted but his buddy, O’Neal, and his own family, encouraged him. After high school, Brolin studied drama at UCLA. In 1960, he signed a contract with 20th Century Fox and changed his name to James Brolin. Throughout the 1960s he had small roles in a few notable movies, including Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and Fantastic Voyage (1966), and he appeared on episodes of some the most popular television shows of the time, including The Patty Duke Show (1965),12 O’clock High (1965), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1965), Love American Style (1971), Batman (1966-67), and The Virginian (1969) playing Ned Trumbull in the episode, “Crime Wave in Buffalo Springs.”

The Big Break

In 1969, Brolin got the TV role that would earn him the 1970 supporting actor Emmy Award, followed by two Golden Globes in 1971 and 1973—the handsome Dr. Steven Kiley on Marcus Welby, M.D. Brolin’s star was rising. His film career took off, with impressive roles in the sci-fi Western, Westworld (1973), Capricorn One (1978), and The Amityville Horror (1979), among others. From 1983 to 1988, Brolin played the lead in the TV series, Hotel. In 2004, he earned his fifth Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal of Ronald Reagan in the TV movie The Reagans (2003).

The Cowboy

Though he’s not known for his roles in Westerns, Brolin proved he could pull off the cowboy swagger with the best of them, most notably as former preacher, John Parsley in Gunsmoke: The Long Ride (1993) with James Arness as Matt Dillon. In this, the fourth Gunsmoke TV movie, Marshal Dillon is falsely accused of murder, and he must prove his innocence before a vicious posse finds and kills him. While outrunning the mob, he saves Parsley’s life, and the former man of God rides with Dillon in his pursuit of justice.

Brolin dabbled in cowboyin’ before his Gunsmoke gig. In 1983 he starred in the TV movie, Cowboy, and now, in his mid-80s, he plays Cap Fuller in Season 1 of the Netflix hit, Ransom Canyon (2025), a modern-day Western about three Texas ranching dynasties.

The Side Gig

He was making a good living as an actor, but in the late 1970s Brolin had a brief and successful second career—as a race car driver.

Put a Ring on It

Brolin married three times, the first in 1966, to actress Jane Cameron Agee just 12 days after they met on the Batman set. They divorced in 1984. The couple had two boys. The oldest, actor Josh Brolin, is known for playing the young James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok in The Young Riders (1989-1992), and had major roles in the Avengers movies, No Country for Old Men (2007), and in the 2010 remake of John Wayne’s classic, True Grit. The couple’s younger son, Jess, keeps a low profile. Jane died in a car accident in 1995.

In 1986 Brolin married actress Jan Smithers whom he met on the set of Hotel. The couple had a daughter, Molly, who is a Hollywood producer. They divorced in 1995.

In 1996, Brolin went on a blind dinner date with Barbra Streisand. They married in 1998. They have no children from their marriage, but Brolin is stepfather to Streisand’s only child, actor Jason Gould, from her marriage to actor Elliott Gould. Brolin and Streisand celebrated their 27th anniversary on July 1, 2025.