Justified, Tombstone & More: Sam Elliott Has Starred In Quite A Few Westerns Besides 1883

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Actor Sam Elliott, with his tall and lean build, confident and gravelly baritone voice, and trademark bushy mustache, was made to be in Westerns. And clearly, Hollywood knows it. The transformation of Sam Elliott: from '70s Heartthrob To "Landman" icon has included dozens of Westerns over his storied career. "Westerns are stuff from the heart, dealing in basic values, showing you an ideal way to conduct yourself," Elliott told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. 

The prolific actor, who has more than 100 film and TV credits, was worried about being typecast earlier in his career. "I still have moments of that, but the older I get, my perspective has just changed," he explained to the Los Angeles Times in 1999. "Now, after having a career for 31 years, I am just thankful that I have had. It has allowed me great opportunities to play some wonderful characters."

The "Mask" star's career longevity may also have to do with the kindness and support he shows his fellow actor; look no further than what Sam Elliott's "Landman" co-stars have really said about him. The Oscar nominee was inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 2007. Elliott reached new generations of admirers thanks to his fan-favorite roles in Taylor Sheridan's "1883" and "Landman." But Elliott is more than just his greatest hits, and some of his most interesting Western roles have come in projects that many fans have never heard of. 

Sam Elliott teamed up with Tom Selleck for two TV movie Westerns based on the books by American writer Louis L'Amour. The first adaptation came in 1979's "The Sacketts," which aired in two parts on NBC. Both Selleck and Elliott were still getting their feet wet in Hollywood at the time, and the TV movie helped launch their respective careers. 

Before landing the part, Elliott had to prove that he could play a real cowboy. "There was a director named Bob Totten, who directed Louis L'Amour's 'The Sacketts,'" Elliott told Cowboys & Indians in 2013. "Before we started shooting, Totten got me and Tom [Selleck] and Jeff Osterhage into an arena. He had us catch our horses, saddle them up, ride around a little bit, get off, unsaddle them, and get the hell out. Totten knew some actors would say anything to get a part."

Selleck wrote in his memoir, "You Never Know" (via Women's World), "'The Sacketts' was a high-profile miniseries, and I was a key part of the cast." He continued, "It's no exaggeration to say that 'The Sacketts' changed me. I had done a solid piece of work, and people would actually see it. I had found a genre where I was sure I belonged." In "The Sacketts," Selleck, Elliott, and Osterhage play brothers who head west for a better life in a post-Civil War frontier landscape. The still-beloved TV movie is widely considered one of Elliott's best roles and holds an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In the 1991 TNT television movie "Conagher," Sam Elliott and his real-life wife Katharine Ross show off their undeniable chemistry. Elliott's titular character is an aging cowboy and drifter. The film does not romanticize the West but instead shows the hardships of frontier life. Elliott also served as a producer and writer. Ross co-wrote the Western with her husband, which was an adaptation from Louis L'Amour's novel of the same name. The pair, who have been married since 1984, have acted in several movies together.

The "Tombstone" actor said that it was L'Amour who first told him about the story. When the writer died in 1988, Elliott scooped up the rights and hired Jeffrey Meyer to write the script. "My wife and I kicked it around until we figured out how far off Meyer's script was," Elliott told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. "We decided to bite the bullet and rewrite it ourselves to keep it true to L'Amour. It turned out to be the most rewarding creative experience, including acting, we'd ever had."

Elliott said that he wrote five drafts to get the script right for "Conagher," with Ross doing the editing. "After the third draft we started shopping the project," said Elliott. "Of course, we wanted to do it as a feature. Eventually we had to admit it would be better to do it for TV than not get it made at all."

"Tombstone" was released in 1993, well past the Western era heyday in Hollywood. Despite the strength of the independent film movement of the 1990s, when genre movies often took a back seat to non-traditional narratives, "Tombstone" was not only a hit at the box office but has gone on to become a pop culture sensation. The star-studded ensemble cast includes Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Bill Paxton as Morgan Earp, and Sam Elliott as Virgil Earp. Virgil is the frontier lawman role Elliott was always meant to play. 

The film was based on a true story that took place in Tombstone, Arizona. The film culminates with the storied depiction of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which took place in 1881. It's loosely based on Earp's lawmen versus black hat type outlaws nicknamed "The Cowboys," a group led by Michael Biehn as the deliciously devilish Johnny Ringo. Tombstone's production was inundated with setbacks that even included Kurt Russell having to take over ghost-directing duties after Kevin Jarre was fired a month into production. "It was brilliant and painful at the same time," Elliott admitted to Entertainment Weekly in 2019. Despite the turmoil, Elliott praised the film's depiction of the legendary gunfight and sang the cast's praises. "That's what made that take of the O.K. Corral the best of all of them, I think. I mean, that tale's been told half-a-dozen times too over the eons."

Few film characters are more iconic than the classic Western hero. He's honorable and stoic, a gunslinger who only uses violence when necessary. He's rugged and brave with a strong moral code. The humble Western hero is often a lawman, sometimes he is a drifter riding the frontier alone, trying to mind his own business until he sees that there's a town that needs saving. As the genre evolved and changed with the times, that Manichean sense of good versus bad, white hat versus black hat, has evolved to show the gray areas of human nature.

Sam Elliott embodies the classic Western hero, like his lawman character in "Tombstone" or his morally incorruptible prospector character in "The Sacketts." In most of the actor's 20-plus Western movies and television shows, he is the good guy. However, Elliott has range and has also played against type as the villain.

In the 1994 TNT TV movie "The Desperate Trail," Elliott subverts his cowboy image and challenges the audience to see the normally heroic actor play an unlikable villain, Marshal Bill Speakes. Sure, Speakes is a lawman, but he's ruthless and vengeful, doing whatever it takes to achieve his twisted brand of justice. There are no real good guys or bad guys in "The Desperate Trail," whoever you wind up rooting for has an ulterior motive. 

"Buffalo Girls" is a two-part Western television miniseries that first aired on CBS in 1995. The three-hour saga tells the story of famous frontierswoman Calamity Jane, played by Anjelica Huston. A few other well-known Western folk heroes also appear in the miniseries, including Sam Elliott as Wild Bill Hickok and country music star Reba McEntire as Annie Oakley. Melanie Griffith, Gabriel Byrne, and Jack Palance also co-star. 

Many famous actors have taken on the role of Wild Bill, including Jeff Bridges in "Wild Bill," Gary Cooper in "The Plainsman," and Charles Bronson in "The White Buffalo." Elliott and McEntire nearly teamed up a second time in a musical. "Oh, God, I'd love more than anything to do a musical! I would truly love to do a musical," Elliott revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. The "Tombstone" star was supposed to audition for a Broadway revival of "Annie Get Your Gun" starring McEntire as Annie Oakley. Unfortunately, the reunion was not meant to be. "I had the music, I had the score, I worked on all the songs and I was ready to go do it," he added. However, Elliott said he regretfully had to pass on the audition because of family reasons. 

It's a tale as old as time. Two old cowboy buddies return to New Mexico after serving in WWII and fall in love with the same girl. Their friendship is tested, as are their old cowboy ways. Stephen Frears' 1998 drama failed to be a hit with audiences or critics, but the film's stellar cast and beautiful cinematography shine despite the film's uneven script. The ensemble cast included Sam Elliott, Woody Harrelson, Billy Crudup, Patricia Arquette, and Penélope Cruz.

Elliott plays Jim Ed Love in "The Hi-Lo Country." He's a successful rancher who knows that the old cowboy ways are in the rearview mirror. Love is still, and always will be, a cowboy at heart, but isn't stuck in his ways. He doesn't romanticize the West but instead finds ways to monetize modern opportunity. While Love isn't "evil" in the story, he is a greedy landowner who is driving smaller owners off their property. 

In 1999, Sam Elliott took on the role of real-life cowboy Bill Tilghman in the TNT made-for-TV movie "You Know My Name." The small-screen film may be much more obscure than some of Elliott's other work, like "Tombstone" and "A Star is Born," but his fictionalized performance is still a standout on his impressive filmography. The movie tells the story of the last six months of the lawman's life. "He is one of those unsung heroes and a lawman for nearly 50 years," Elliott told the Los Angeles Times about Tilghman.

Tilghman was born in 1856. He worked as everything from a buffalo hunter to a sheriff to a state senator to a film director and producer. Most of his life was spent as a lawman of some sort, and he was known in the Wild West as a courageous gunslinger. Tilghman even rode with the famous Earp brothers (Elliott played Virgil Earp in "Tombstone"). 

Tilghman headed out to Hollywood with a few friends in the early 1900s because he wanted to show the movie world what the real West was like, not the romanticized Hollywood version. He co-starred, co-directed, and co-produced the silent film "The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws" in 1915. However, when it came time to show the movie, the project's lack of star power proved to be a hard sell for theaters looking to get people in the seats. 

Sam Elliott has played a lot of cowboys and lawmen over the course of his storied career. He moseyed into unfamiliar territory in 2015 when he took on the villainous role of Avery Markham in the sixth and final season of the criminally underrated FX Western drama "Justified." Elliott earned a Critics' Choice Award for best guest performer for his turn as the violent gangster.

"Well, it's just the luck of the draw," Elliott told Entertainment Weekly about landing the juicy role. "After being in this business almost 50 years and thinking it's pretty much come down to selling trucks and beer on television, I got a big shot last year, and this was part of it, probably the biggest part of it." Elliott said that he watched "Justified" on television from time to time and was impressed by the writing. 

The "A Star is Born" actor added that he was used to making longer form television shows but hadn't really dabbled in episodic TV. "I think cable television leans toward great artistic freedom, not a lot of people looking over your shoulder with suits on, trying to figure out what they're going to put between the scenes," he said. "So I look at it as a real blessing that came my way and a real opportunity to work with some creative people on both sides of the camera."

Sam Elliott was not on the original "Yellowstone" series, but he is a part of the "Yellowstone" franchise. "1883," which is considered the first prequel miniseries to "Yellowstone," follows the Dutton family's dangerous frontier journey west in the post-Civil War era. Besides Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill also co-star. Elliott plays Civil War veteran Shea Brennan, who assists both immigrants and the Dutton family as they travel through the unforgiving western frontier.  

"A fun character to play," Elliott said of Shea. "That fact that he'll cry over losing immigrants on the road for whatever reason, and the fact that he shoots some guy in the head for stealing somebody's bacon? He's a complex guy." Like many people in the late 1800s, Shea's life is marked by tragedy, as his entire family dies from disease in the show's premiere. 

Unfortunately, Sam Elliott dealt with a number of health challenges while working on Yellowstone's "1883," as the actor was 78 years old when he started the difficult production. "That show beat the s*** out of me," Elliott admitted to Deadline in 2025. "I had a fall. I've got two torn tendons in my hip that aren't going to heal up. I can't hear anything anymore, because of all the f***ing gunfire." Despite the physical toll, the veteran actor was glad for the opportunity. "'1883' was one of the greatest gifts I've ever been handed," added Elliott. "Taylor's a gifted man. He's got a lot of really talented people around him."

In "Landman" Season 2, showrunner Taylor Sheridan hired Sam Elliott to play Billy Bob Thornton's character Tommy Norris' estranged father T.L. Norris on his hit series. As much as they enjoy working together, there have been several "Landman" scenes where Billy Bob Thornton struggled to film with Sam Elliott. "Some of the hardest stuff I had to do was when I had to be abrupt to, or even mean with, Sam Elliott," Thornton admitted to Variety. "Sam and I are old, old friends." The "Slingblade" actor's quote says a lot about how "Landman" costars Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott feel about each other in real life. 

T.L and Tommy's relationship improves over the course of Season 2. The two veteran actors move through both the lighter and more dramatic moments when they share the screen. They are so good together that everyone has to stop and watch. Elliott told Gold Derby, "Sometimes the video village is in a tent and you can't really see what's going on but sometimes there'll be a flap open and we've looked at it a couple of times, Billy Bob and I both, and it's wall to wall [of people] in there, looking for a monitor. It's a great company to be around."

"Landman" has become one of Sheridan's biggest hits. "It's dumbfounding that there's so many people that are watching this show," Elliott told Variety. "I think that it's a great escape from the s*** that's out there in the world today."