Sam Elliott has inhabited a lot of great characters, including The Ranch's Beau Bennett. Elliott was a construction worker and spent time in the California Air National Guard before he launched his acting career in the late '60s, starting with guest appearances on TV shows and movies like Lancer, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the original series of Mission: Impossible as IMF agent Doug Robert. While the 1972 b-movie Frogs - where he played a leading role - is probably a project he'd sooner forget, it did help land him a role in 1976's Lifeguard. This was one of the first movies to prove Elliott's leading man potential, with the film being a sleeper hit and the actor himself considering it a career milestone.
While he didn't think much of the final movie, Sam Elliott met his future wife Katherine Ross in the 1978 horror film The Legacy, from Return Of The Jedi helmer Richard Marquand. That proved to be Elliott's last movie for nearly a decade, and for much of the '80s, he appeared in shows and TV films like Western The Shadow Riders with Tom Selleck and Travis McGee. The actor later appeared in the tearjerking drama Mask with Cher, leading to a run of movies. While Road House was a success, the likes of Whoopi Goldberg's action-comedy Fatal Beauty or buddy cop thriller Blue Jean Cop were duds.
On television, Sam Elliott's majestic mustache and gravelly voice saw him carve a niche with Westerns like Conagher, The Desperate Trail and true story You Know My Name, alongside many others. On the big screen, he played Virgil Earp in 1993's Western hit Tombstone, which featured an epic ensemble, including Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer. That same year, Elliott also appeared in the war epic Gettysburg. His most high-profile part during the decade was The Big Lebowski's The Stranger, a laconic cowboy who acts as the narrator of the movie's bizarre story; the Coen Brothers penned the role specifically for Elliott.
The 2000s saw Sam Elliott play supporting roles in political drama The Contender - fronted by Joan Allen - and he played "Thunderbolt" Ross in 2003's The Hulk. He received great reviews for his supporting turn in Thank You for Smoking, but while he was the highlight of films like Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider or Did You Hear About the Morgans? he deserved better material to work with. He also continued to appear in TV movies during this time, including Avenger and 2010's November Christmas, co-starring John Corbitt and Karen Allen.
The 2010s have seen Sam Elliott doing some of the finest work of his career. He received great notices for his villain role in the final season of Justified, which he followed up with more sterling performances in The Hero and The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot. He played the tough - but loving - rancher Beau Bennett on every season of Netflix comedy The Ranch and received his first-ever Oscar nomination for his supporting turn in Bradley Cooper's A Star Is Born. In 2022, he added yet another highly-praised performance to his increasing list with Yellowstone prequel 1883 as Shea Brennan. Despite the praise, 1883 was always envisioned as a limited series, meaning a second season unlikely.