He was written into "The Big Lebowski" without his knowledge, and he's officially
in the Mustache Hall of Fame. Keep watching for so much more about the untold truth of Sam Elliott.
Born in 1944 in Sacramento, California, Sam Elliott began acting in the late '60s.
He did what a lot of actors before him had done:
He started out in small roles in television Westerns, eventually earning slightly more
substantial parts in the hit shows "Lancer" and "Mission: Impossible."
His first role in a major film came in 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid," which featured the superstar leads Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the title roles.
A comedic Western based on the lives of two notorious bank-robbing outlaws, the film seems
like a perfect fit for Elliott, who spent much of his career working within the genre. Unfortunately
for him, he had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it part as a card player. He didn't even have any lines.
While the role didn't have much of an impact on his career, the movie did have a rather
coincidental place in his life. Starring beside Newman and Redford was Katharine Ross,
and though she and Elliott shared no scenes and didn't cross paths during filming,
nearly ten years later, they did meet again and start dating as co-leads in "The Legacy." It
wasn't long before the couple were married. Today, they're still together, and they have a daughter.
Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, Sam Elliott never quite hit it big,
but he did enjoy increasing recognition as a character actor appearing in television shows,
TV movies, and big screen productions.
His first major starring role in a feature film came in 1976's "Lifeguard," which tells the tale
of a lifeguard working in Southern California who's forced into self-reflection after attending
a high school reunion and realizing that his classmates have accomplished greater things
with their lives. While the movie performed decently in the box office, Elliott publicly
complained about the film's marketing during the promotional tour, which caused the studio
heads at Paramount to become displeased. As a result, he never worked with the company again.
That wasn't the only trouble he experienced during this period. During an interview in 1980,
Elliott revealed that he'd been propositioned repeatedly during auditions, saying,
"You cannot believe the casting couch stories I could tell you,
man. The clichés are all true. I've had propositions from men and women, and I've
turned them all down. It's probably hurt me, but I'm the one who has to live with that guilt.
My conscience is clear, even though my career is still not setting the world on fire."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he later became a vocal supporter of the Me Too movement.
However, these decades weren't all hard times, as he scored a number of high-profile roles.
In 1985, he starred in a supporting role alongside Cher in "Mask," then in 1989,
he starred next to Patrick Swayze in the cult classic "Road House."
By the time the 1990s rolled around, Sam Elliott had spent more than 20 years in Hollywood,
but he still didn't have much in the way of name recognition.
For the most part, he seemed destined to forever be a somewhat acknowledged face without a name.
With the arrival of his third decade in the business, however, that was about to change.
After playing a substantial part in the critically acclaimed civil war epic "Gettysburg,"
Elliott starred alongside Kurt Russell in the now-classic Western "Tombstone,"
which was hailed by audiences and critics alike. In the role of Virgil Earp — from the
famous real-life Old West family of lawmen headed by the renowned Wyatt Earp — Elliott
was particularly captivating. This helped to propel him into prominent parts in future films.
Sadly enough, Elliott's father, who never wanted him to become an actor,
didn't get a chance to see his success begin. The two sparred over the career choice and were never
able to settle their differences, as his father died of a heart attack when Elliott was just 18.
Many years later while speaking in an interview with The Star, Elliott explained,
"He died thinking, 'Man, this kid is going to go down the wrong path.' And
I think on some levels that was either hard on me or made me more
focused in my resolve to have a career, you know what I mean?"
These days, "The Big Lebowski" is almost universally considered one of the Coen
brothers' greatest films, and one of its many iconic characters is Elliott's "The Stranger,"
a surreal narrator who delivers some of the movie's most quotable lines.
"Darkness washed over the Dude. Darker than a back steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night."
According to an interview in The New York Times, Elliott was initially disappointed
at being cast as yet another cowboy. That was until he read the script.
Speaking to NPR, Elliott explained that as he looked through the screenplay,
he spotted a surprise. As he explained it:
"Over the dialogue, there's this tumbling tumbleweed blowing and talk about this
Southwest accent and, 'Sounding not unlike Sam Elliott.' They had my name in the script."
Later as they were filming his final scene, Elliott became exasperated by going through take
after take. The Coen brothers finally admitted that they had already gotten what they wanted,
but they enjoyed watching and listening to him so much that they had him do it again and again.
"Well, that about does her. Wraps her all up."
Part of what helped propel Sam Elliott to success was his distinctive voice, and over the years,
he's lent it to a wide variety of high-profile commercials. Perhaps the most notable products
you might've heard his familiar voice hawking are Coors beer and Dodge Ram Heavy Duty trucks.
Since 2008, Elliott has also voiced Smokey Bear, the U.S. Forest Service mascot created
to help with wildfire prevention efforts. You probably have heard his catch phrase:
"Only you can prevent wildfires."
Another fun fact: Elliott not only delivers Smokey's famous catchphrase,
but he actually shares his birthdate with the fictional spokesbear: August 9, 1944.
While Sam Elliott's star had been rising steadily for some 20 years or so, in the 2010s, he really
took off. By the middle of the decade, he had recurring roles in the Netflix series "The Ranch"
and "Grace and Frankie". He also lent his voice to the 2015 animated film "The Good Dinosaur."
Then in 2017, Elliott starred in "The Hero," a film about an aging Western star whose best days
are behind him. Not only was it the perfect role for him, but according to the film's writer and
director, Brett Haley, it was literally written for Elliott. As Haley explained to the L.A. Times,
"To me, it was a love letter not only to Sam, but to a dying breed of actor and film in Hollywood."
Shortly after that Elliott starred in the flat-out bizarre B-film "The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then
the Bigfoot," which fared well with critics thanks largely to Elliott's performance.
In 2018, Sam Elliott hit another major high point in his career so far with his performance in "A
Star Is Born." Directed by Bradley Cooper and starring Cooper, Elliot, and Lady Gaga,
the movie is about the relationship between an up-and-coming singer and her alcoholic mentor.
"A Star Is Born" was a massive success by every measure, earning $436 million on a
$36 million budget. It garnered almost universal praise from the critics, and scored eight Oscar
nominations including Best Picture, one win for Best Original Song, and one nomination for Best
Supporting Actor for Sam Elliott. Shockingly, this was his first Academy Award nomination,
indicating that even at 75 years old, his career still had exciting places to go.
Elliott's performance in the film also earned him a nomination for Outstanding Performance
by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the Screen Actors Guild Award and a win for Best
Supporting Actor at the National Board of Review Awards. Not bad for an old cowboy.
Along with his smooth, deep voice and tough demeanor, Sam Elliott is best recognized by
his iconic mustache, and we're not the only ones who think so. In 2015,
Elliott was inducted into the Mustache Hall of Fame, alongside the likes of real-life legends
such as Teddy Roosevelt, Hulk Hogan, and Billy Dee Williams, as well as fictional characters
such as Ned Flanders and Yosemite Sam. Talk about a distinguished class of facial hair.
While we all know and love his superior upper-lip sweater, Elliott himself doesn't
quite understand all the fuss.
Sam Elliott might not get all the attention, but we totally do. That's some ferocious facial
fuzz he's got there. Of course, these days Sam Elliott is among the most recognizable
faces in the industry, as he continues to shine on screens big and small. His latest
breakout hit is "1883" on Paramount+, a prequel to the series "Yellowstone."
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