Kim Darby (born Deborah Zerby; July 8, 1947) is an American actress and teacher. Her breakout role was as Mattie Ross in the 1969 Western film True Grit, earning her a BAFTA Award nomination for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. The same year, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for her performance in counterculture comedy Generation (1969).

Darby has appeared in over 80 films and television series. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her role in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. Between 1992 and 2009, she taught acting in the extension program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Early life Darby was born Deborah Zerby on July 8, 1947 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of professional dancers Inga (née Wiere) and Jon Zerby (known professionally as the "Dancing Zerbys" or "Dancing Zerbies"). Her father nicknamed her "Derby", saying "I thought Derby Zerby would be a great stage name". Her mother was a Hungarian immigrant from Budapest.

Darby was raised in North Hollywood and attended Van Nuys High School. She performed as a singer and dancer under the name "Derby Zerby". Believing that she could not "hope for serious important roles in films with a name like "Derby Zerby", she renamed herself "Kim", because it was the name of a popular girl in her high school whom she admired, and "Darby", as a variation of "Derby". While still a teenager, Darby studied acting under Tony Barr.

Career Film

Darby began acting at age 15; her first appearance was as a dancer in the feature film version of Bye Bye Birdie (1963), about a rock and roll music singing and guitar-playing star (modeled on the real-life career of Elvis Presley). Her television work included the Western TV series Gunsmoke of 1955–1975 (in the 1967 episodes "The Lure" and "Vengeance") and another long-running Western, Bonanza of 1959–1973 (in its 1967 episode "The Sure Thing"); and as a young girl approaching adulthood on an all-child planet in the 1966–67 first-season episode, "Miri", of the original Star Trek TV series of 1966–1969.

Among her many feature film roles, she is best known for her portrayal of Mattie Ross in the Western classic True Grit (1969), when she was 21 years old. Co-starring with John Wayne and Glen Campbell, she played a precocious, unusually confident 14-year-old Arkansas frontier girl pursuing the murderer who killed her beloved father. Set in the mid-1870s, the film was adapted from a popular Western novel published in 1968 by Charles Portis. It was hugely successful and reached number one at the box office in the US.

In 1970, Darby appeared in The Strawberry Statement and Norwood. She co-starred with Henry Winkler in The One and Only in 1978, and appeared in 1985's Better Off Dead, an absurdist comedy. A decade later, she played Laurie Strode's adoptive mother in the slasher film Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), a sequel to Halloween (1978).

Television roles

Darby's 1960s television roles included two appearances on the NBC series Mr. Novak, starring James Franciscus, including an appearance as Julie Dean in "To Lodge and Dislodge" (1963). She was cast as Heather Heatherton in the Wagon Train episode "The Story of Hector Heatherton" (1964) and as Judy Wheeler in "The Silent Dissuaders" (1965).

Darby also appeared about this time on The Eleventh Hour, The Fugitive, The Donna Reed Show, Ironside, and in the first season of Star Trek as the title character in the episode "Miri."

Darby was cast in an episode of the NBC sitcom The John Forsythe Show ("'Tis Better Have Loved and Lost", 1965), and as Angel in the two-part Gunsmoke episode "Vengeance." She appeared in the episode "Faire Ladies of France" (1967) of the NBC western series The Road West starring Barry Sullivan and a Bonanza episode "A Sure Thing" (1967) as Trudy Loughlin, guest starring Tom Tully as Burt Loughlin, her father. She appeared in another episode of Gunsmoke, "The Lure" (1967) as Carrie Neely.

She was cast in the 1972 movie, The People, which reunited her with William Shatner from her Star Trek appearance. She played the unhinged Virginia Calderwood in the first television miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man in 1976.

Darby had the central role of Sally Farnham in the made-for-TV chiller Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973). Some of her subsequent television roles included guest appearances on Crazy Like a Fox, Thriller, Family, The Love Boat, The Streets of San Francisco, Riptide, and Becker.

Darby admitted her career declined after the 1970s, partly due to her dependency on amphetamines at the time.

In 1990, she began to teach acting in the Los Angeles area and was an instructor in the extension program at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1992 to 2009. Darby also appeared in the 1999 The X-Files episode "Sein und Zeit" as a woman who confessed to the murder of her son, a boy who disappeared under circumstances similar to those being investigated by the lead characters, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

In 2014, she played Stacia Clairborne, a partially blind witness to a crime, in the episode "Prologue" of the show Perception.

Personal life Darby has been married three times, including to William Tennant. In 1968, she married James Stacy, with whom she had one daughter, Heather. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1969. In 1970, she married James Westmoreland; the marriage ended in divorce after less than two months. Both of her husbands named James died only 5 days apart, on September 9 and September 14, in 2016.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1963 Bye Bye Birdie Teenager Uncredited 1965 Bus Riley's Back in Town Gussie April 1967 Sandy True 1968 Flesh and Blood Faye Television film 1969 Generation Doris Bolton Owen True Grit Mattie Ross 1970 Linda Norwood Rita Lee Chipman 1971 Unfinished film Red Sky at Morning Barbara Blandish 1972 Melodye Amerson Television film 1973 Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Sally Farnham 1974 Ruby Hardgrave This Is the West That Was Calamity Jane 1978 Mary Crawford 1979 Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers Sweetiepie Television film 1980 Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb Lucy Tibbets 1982 Kate Bradey 1983 Summer Girl Mary Shelburne 1985 First Steps Sherry Petrofsky Embassy Sue Davidson Better Off Dead Jenny Meyer 1987 Teen Wolf Too Professor Brooks 1995 Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers Debra Strode 1999 Mrs. Summers 2000 Newsbreak Frances Johnson 2001| Mockingbird Don't Sing Louise Standon 2004 You Are So Going to Hell! Louise 2007 Dead Letters Barbs 2017 Mildy Torres

Television Year Title Role Notes 1965 Mr. Novak 1964 Dr. Kildare Patsy Episode: "A Nickel's Worth of Prayer" Wagon Train Heather Heatherton Episode: "The Hector Heatherton Story" 1966 Run for Your Life Episode: "Hang Down Your Head and Laugh" 1966 Episodes: “An Apple A Day”; "Joshua's Kingdom" Star Trek: The Original Series Miri Episode: "Miri" 1967 Sandy Episode: "The Five Daughters Affair" Ironside Pilot for the NBC series of the same name Bonanza Episode: "The Sure Thing" Gunsmoke Carrie Neely Episode: "The Lure" Angel Episodes: "Vengeance, Part 1" and "Vengeance, Part 2" 1972 Pilot for the TV series of the same name 1973 Circle of Fear Episode: "Dark Vengeance" Love Story Episode: "Joie" 1974 Police Story Episodes: "Captain Hook", "Wyatt Earp Syndrome" 1975 Thriller Helen Episode: "Good Salary - Prospects - Free Coffin" 1976 Rich Man, Poor Man Virginia Calderwood Miniseries 1977 Mary Anne Moorhead Episode: "Return of the Baby" 1978 Family Lily Barker Episode: "Princess in the Tower" 1979 Miniseries 1979 Wendy Episodes: "Alas, Poor Dwyer/After the War/Itsy Bitsy/Ticket to Ride/Disco Baby" (Parts 1 and 2) 1982 Sarah Curtis Episode: "The Tomorrow Lady / Father, Dear Father / Still Life" Fantasy Island Episode: "The Challenge / A Genie Named Joe" 1984 Doris Garrett Episode: "Joint Custody" Murder, She Wrote Laurie Episode: "We're Off to Kill the Wizard" E/R Mrs. Johnson Episode: "Only a Nurse" Episode: "Abigail" 1985 Scarecrow & Mrs. King Episode: "Over the Limit" 1986 Crazy Like a Fox Jenny Fenwick Episode: "A Fox at the Races" Riptide Nice Beverly Episode: "A Matter of Policy" 1995 Murder, She Wrote 'Wee' Joan Kemp Episode: "Film Flam" 1999 Episode: "Sein und Zeit" Becker Episode: "Point of Contact" 2014 Perception Episode: "Prologue"

References

External links

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