James Robert, or Jim-Bob Walton as he was commonly known, was the youngest of the Walton sons. He was known for tinkering and learning the mechanics of new gadgets, often with his head in the clouds even before pursuing his dreams of flight. For all Jim-Bob’s grand dreams, his actor, David W. Harper, would live a far more reclusive life when The Waltons ended. What happened to this young actor after he retreated from Walton’s Mountain?

Harper was born on October 4, 1961, in Abilene, Texas. Though his own entry into the industry began in 1971, Harper is actually the son of The Wild Bunch actor Paul Harper. He made his acting debut with a bang, starting with his defining role of Jim-Bob in 1971. The Waltons began as a made-for-TV film, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which tells the tale of John Walton trying to return home for Christmas with his increasingly concerned family.

The cast would undergo some significant changes among the adult cast, but Harper was among the youngsters who stayed when CBS ordered a series based on the film, which in turn was inspired by the book Spencer’s Mountain by Earl Hamner Jr. It was a good thing, too, because this one-season continuation was ordered because the film was such a hit, and the show fast proved it could perpetuate that goodwill.