Why Dale From Landman Looks So Familiar

Fans of "Landman" barely have time to breathe. Each new episode offers them a combination of plot twists and a parade of familiar actors that make you squint at the TV and try to remember where you know them from — including James Jordan. He debuted as Dale Bradley in the Paramount+ show in 2024, but there are still fans who can't quite remember why he looks so familiar. The reason is simple: he's been around for quite a while, as you will see.

If you are a long-time network television fan, there's a chance that Jordan looks familiar to you because he participated in a slate of high-profile TV procedurals like "CSI," Cold Case," "Without a Trace," and "24." However, these shows tend to have hundreds of guest stars, so it's common for viewers to only have a vague memory of an actor who participates in one episode. Fans of "Veronica Mars" and "True Blood" might have an easier time remembering, though, because he played recurring roles on both shows. There's also the chance that you don't recognize him because he lost quite a few pounds.

In cinema, Jordan starred in movies that ranged from acclaimed titles like "Certain Women" to full-blown action flicks like "Message From The King" (which he starred alongside the late Chadwick Boseman) and the western "Seraphim Falls," with Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson. But Jordan really came to life on the screen after he decided to partner up with one person who took his career in a whole different direction: Taylor Sheridan.

In 2017, James Jordan was in the cast of "Wind River," one of the most acclaimed Taylor Sheridan movies ever. The neo-western helped elevate Sheridan's status in Hollywood, especially after getting a slate of nominations in several film festivals. After that, the writer and director became a TV mogul with a Midas touch. It was all downhill for both Sheridan and everyone who worked with him from then on, because they pretty much guaranteed that they'd have a free pass to star in a slate of hit TV shows.

While speaking with Town & Country, Jordan had nothing but praise for Sheridan, and indicated that the writer and director is pretty much at the center of TV-making these days. "When you get to work with a master storyteller like Taylor Sheridan, it just doesn't get any better. He really has the pulse of the culture right now," Jordan shared. "When he's writing a story, it usually just clicks into place for me. I love the worlds and frontiers that he likes to explore, and I fit into those worlds, for the most part."

Out of all the TV projects that Taylor Sheridan created while at Paramount+, James Jordan was in five of them, including "Landman." So, fans of the Sheridan-verse can easily recognize him, because he participated in many episodes of "Mayor of Kingstown," "1883," "Lioness," and, of course, Sheridan's biggest — and most scandalous — hit: "Yellowstone." With each entry, it's clear that Sheridan trusts Jordan more and more, and "Landman" is, so far, the show in which the actor has participated in the most episodes. In "Lioness," he was in 16 episodes. On "Landman," he's already at 20 at the time of reporting.

On "Landman," Jordan's character, Dale Bradley, is a ruthless oil engineer that has a hands-on approach to the exploration of petroleum and cattle. Due to his experience on the field, Bradley has a keen eye for calculating risks and detecting what might go wrong on site — that's why in Season 2, he was directly involved in dealing with a deadly gas leak that impacted the lives of several workers. Season 2 marks an interesting change for his character's journey because it starts to put him in a position of taking accountability for a disaster. So, the character's transformation is one to watch as new episodes and new seasons unfold.