Sam Elliott biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Born on August 9, 1944 in California, Sam Elliott grew up in Oregon, where he spent his time exploring the outdoors and watching movies. By the time he was 9 years old, he had decided on a career in acting. His father, who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was skeptical of his son's chosen profession. The two were unable to resolve those differences before the senior Elliott died of a heart attack when Sam was 18 years old. "He died thinking, 'Man, this kid is going to go down the wrong path,'" Elliott said in a later interview. "And I think on some levels that was either hard on me or made me more focused in my resolve to have a career."

Acting Debut

Elliott moved out to Hollywood and landed his first credited role: an appearance in the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which Robert Redford and Paul Newman wowed audiences as the titular pair of Western outlaws. Elliott's role, "Card Player No. 2," was somewhat less prominent. ("I think I was a shadow on a wall or something," Elliott joked.) As a bit player, Elliott never got a chance to speak with the film's leading lady, actress Katharine Ross, who was cast as Redford's lover. Nearly a decade later, however, Elliott and Ross would meet again while on the film The Legacy (1978). They soon fell in love. "Not a great film, but a legacy nonetheless for Katharine and me," Elliott quipped. Elliott and Ross married in 1984 and have one daughter.

Through the 1970s, Elliott found steady work in television roles on shows such as Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke and Hawaii Five-O. He also played Evel Knievel in a TV biopic about the legendary motorcycle-jumping daredevil. Though Elliott's good looks could have placed him squarely in the heartthrob category, he shunned a conventional Hollywood career. He not only refused typical leading man roles, but began maintaining what would become his signature long hair and handlebar mustache (which he says takes "months, several months" to grow back if shaved off for a role). "I don't want to be known as a sex symbol," he told Playgirl magazine in 1976. "There's a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott."

Career Highlights

Being "a Sam Elliott" meant taking on more challenging, supporting roles in a wide array of films.