Liberty Lighthouse Journal: DOSSIER

"I've spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you.”

BORN: August 9^th, 1944

BIRTH NAME: Samuel Pack Elliott

HEIGHT: 6' 2”

SPOUSE: Katherine Ross (1984 to present)

Samuel Pack Elliott was born at the Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, California, son of Glynn Marnie, a physical trainer instructor and high school teacher and Henry Nelson Elliott (1911-1966), who worked as a predator control specialist for the Department of the Interior. His parents were originally from El Paso, Texas. He moved from California to Portland, Oregon with his family when he was 13.

Elliott spent his teenage years living in northeast Portland and graduated from David Douglas High School in 1962. After graduating from high school, Elliott attended college at the University of Oregon as an English and psychology major for two terms before dropping out. He returned to Portland and attended Clark College in nearby Vancouver, Washington, where he completed a two-year program and was cast as Big Jule in a stage production of Guys and Dolls. The Vancouver Columbian newspaper suggested that he should be a professional actor. After his graduation from Clark in 1965, Elliott re-enrolled at the University of Oregon and pledged at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He dropped out again after his father died of a heart attack in 1966.

In the late 1960s, Elliott relocated to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He began as a character actor. His appearance and voice were suited for Westerns. In 1969, he performed with credit in Judd for the Defense in the episode “The Crystal Maze”. He also appeared in the show Lancer in the episode “Death Bait”.

One of early film roles was as a card player who watches the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) demonstrate his shooting ability in opening scene of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).

In the 1970-1971 television season, Elliott starred as Doug Robert for several episodes of Mission Impossible.

In 1975, Elliott was cast in lead role as Charles Wood in television film I Will Fight No More Forever, a dramatization of Chief Joseph's resistance to the U.S. government's forcible removal of Nez Pierce Indian tribe to a reservation in Idaho.

From 1976 to 1977, he played lead character Sam Damon in miniseries Once an Eagle with Amy Irving, Kim Hunter, Clu Gulager, and Melanie Griffith. He also had a starring role in Lifeguard (1976).

In 1977, Elliott portrayed Tom Keating in miniseries Aspen.

In 1979, he co-starred with Tom Selleck in popular miniseries The Sacketts. In 1982, Elliott and Selleck would team up again in The Shadow Riders another Louis L'Amour adaptation.

In 1985, Elliott had a supporting role in Mask opposite Cher. He also made guest appearances on shows: Felony Squad, Gunsmoke, Lancer, Hawaii Five-O and TV movies like Buffalo Girls (1995), in which he portrayed Wild Bill Hickok.

In 1986, Elliott starred in TV movie Gone to Texas, based on a biography of Sam Houston.

In 1991, Elliott portrayed Wade Garrett in Road House and Elliott and his wife Katherine Ross starred in the Louis L'Amour novel Conagher.

In 1993, Elliott was cast in two epic historical dramas – as Brigadier General John Buford in Gettysburg and Virgil Earp in Tombstone.

In 1998, Elliott was cast in The Big Lebowski.

In 2002, he co-starred in We Were Soldiers, portraying Command Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley.

In 2003, he was cast in the action film Hulk.

In 2005, he appeared in Thank You for Smoking.

RANDY BATES, CLEO ELLIOTT, KATHERINE ROSS, SAM ELLIOTT

In 2007, Elliott was cast in Ghost Rider and appeared in The Golden Compass with Nicole Kidman, Christopher Lee and Daniel Craig.

In 2009 Elliott had a small role in Up in the Air and a small role in The Company You Keep.

Sam was cast in the award-winning and popular series Justified starring Timothy Oliphant and Walton Goggins that ran from 2010-2015. Sam was a guest star for the entire sixth season. He praised the entire cast, especially Walton Goggins in an NPR 2017 interview.

In 2015, Elliott appeared with Lily Tomlin in the comedy Grandma. He won the Critics' Choice Award for best guest performer in a drama in the FX Network production of Justified.

In 2015, Elliott began appearing as a series regular for The Ranch with Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson.

In 2017, Elliott starred in The Hero. His work in the film received much critical acclaim. In the same year, Elliott starred in The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot.

In 2018, Elliott costarred in A Star is Born. He won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 2022, Elliott played Shae Brennon in the miniseries 1883, a prequel to the Yellowstone series.

PERSONAL LIFE & TRIVIA

Elliott married actress Katherine Ross in 1984. They have a daughter, Cleo Rose Elliott (born September 17^th, 1984), a musician in Malibu, California. Ross and Elliott live on a seaside ranch in Malibu, which Sam purchased in the 1970s. Elliott also maintains a property in the Willamete Valley in Oregon. When Sam's mother died in 2012 at the age of 96, he took ownership of his childhood home in northeast Portland.
1982 – Illness forced Sam to drop out of TV movie The Ambush Murders. He was replaced by James Brolin.
1993 – For his role in Tombstone, Sam worked with renowned Hollywood gun coach Thell Reed.
His character in Hulk (2003) as General Ross, Sam wore a combat patch for the 1^st Cavalry Division. In We Were Soldiers (2002), he portrayed SGM Plumley of the 7^th Cavalry Regiment, a unit in the 1^st Cavalry Division.
Before he was asked to take the role as Lee Scoresby in The Golden Compass (2007), he had not read any of the Philip Pullman books. He chose to read the books first and then read the film's script.
In the 2005 film Thank You for Smoking, Sam used his own Winchester 1894 rifle.
Sam Elliott is the fifth husband of Katherine Ross.
Sam Elliott and “Smokey Bear” has the same birthday. Sam has been the voice of “Smokey Bear” since 2008.
Sam had three films that premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival: Digging for Fire, Grandma, and I'll See You in My Dreams.
In 2015, Sam was inducted into the International Mustache Hall of Fame in the Film & Television category.
Sam is English and Scottish descent.
As of 2019, Sam has appeared in three films that were Oscar nominated for Best Picture: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Up in the Air (2009), and A Star is Born (2018).
Sam's great-great-great-uncle, Edward F. Mitchusson, was a doctor who died at the Alamo in 1836.
Sam began singing in the choir when he was four years old at the Congregational Church in Sacramento.
Attended the high school with the guys who formed the Kingsmen (“Louie, Louie” 1963).