Liberty Lighthouse Journal: DOSSIER: TIMOTHY OLYPHANT

Speaking of the late writer Elmore Leonard who created the Raylan Givens character in Justified: “The guy was genuinely cool. It was never a pose with him. You can go into any party or public gathering, and you'll see lots of people trying to act cool, and there's always one person off in the corner, not doing much, who's the real deal. That was Elmore.”

BORN: May 20^th, 1968 in Honolulu, Hawaii

BIRTH NAME: Timothy David Olyphant

NICKNAME: Olyphantastic

HEIGHT: 6'

Olyphant moved from Modesto, California at the age of two. His parents are Katherine (Gideon) and John Vernon Baron Olyphant, who worked as vice president of production of Gallo Winery. Timothy has an older brother, Andrew, and a younger brother, Matthew. His parents divorced when Timothy was a teenager. He is English, German, Scottish, Dutch, Irish, and Russian-Jewish descent.

Timothy is also a descendant of the Vanderbilt family of New York. His paternal fourth great-grandfather was Cornelius Vanderbilt; his third great-grandfather was William Henry Vanderbilt, who doubled the family's railroad fortune; his great-grandmother was socialite Emily Vanderbilt Sloane and his great-uncle was music producer John Hammond. The surname Olyphant is Scottish origin. A paternal fourth great-grandfather, Dr. David Olyphant, was born in Scotland and served as director-general of the Southern hospitals during the American Revolutionary War.

Timothy attended Fred C. Beyer High School in Modesto. Growing up he enjoyed art and drawing, but was shy about acting. He was a swimming athlete throughout his childhood and was a finalist at the 1986 Nationals in the 200m Individual Medley. He was recruited to the University of Southern California by USC Trojans swimming coach Peter Daland. When Timothy first visited the campus on a recruitment trip, he intended to study architecture but was told it would not be possible because of his training schedule. So instead, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, but was one elective shy of a degree; which he returned to finish 30 years later via an online course during the COVID pandemic. In 1990 he was considering a career in commercial art; but while working as a swimming coach at Irvine Novaquatics, Timothy decided to move to New York to seek other options. He initially performed as a stand-up comic until he decided to become an actor. In his final year of college, he had taken as acting class as an elective at UC Irvine. He completed a two-year acting program at William Esper Studio in New York and began auditioning for roles.

Timothy's first paid acting job was in 1995 on the Warner Brothers television pilot of 77 Sunset Strip. It was Phyllis Huffman who cast him in the role but he did not get an opportunity to meet the show's producer Clint Eastwood who quit days before filming began. Later that year he made his debut Off Broadway in the production of The Monogamist.

Olyphant made his feature film debut in The First Wives Club (1996) with Goldie Hawn. He made his television debut in the pilot of the CBS series Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

In 1997, Olyphant made a guest appearance as Officer Brett Faraday in three episodes of the ABC police drama High Incident.

Olyphant returned to television in 1998 for a guest star role in an episode of the HBO sitcom Sex and the City.

In 1999, Olyphant portrayed a drug dealer in the cult comedy Go and the offbeat comedy No Vacancy, starring with Christina Ricci.

In 2000, he performed in The Broken Hearts Club. Olyphant then played a detective in the action film Gone in 60 Seconds.

Olyphant was offered a starring role in the film The Fast and the Furious, but he refused so the role went to Vin Diesel. Olyphant thought the film would bomb at the box office.

In 2001, Olyphant had supporting roles in Rock Star, the crime drama Auggie Rose, and the romantic comedy Head Over Heels. He also appeared in an episode of the Sc-Fi Channel horror series Night Visions in 2002.

In 2003, Olyphant performed in his most high-profile role in the action film A Man Apart starring Vin Diesel. He appeared in the Stephen King horror film Dreamcatcher as one of four friends attacked by parasitic aliens.

In 2004, Olyphant performed as a porn film producer in the comedy The Girl Next Door.

Olyphant's big success and the attention of the public came with his portrayal as Sheriff Seth Bullock in the HBO western series Deadwood, which aired for three seasons from 2004 to 2006. The film gave him the opportunity to play a righteous lawman. While Olyphant was initially intended to be highlight of the series, the real life character Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) dominated the show.

Years later, Olyphant would reflect upon series and stated that Deadwood “almost has done more for me since we wrapped than while it was on. I continue to draw from it, to steal from it. I'm much better at my job now because of the things I learned while doing it. David Milch is one of the greatest writers, storytellers, directors, creative forces I've ever been around. … Frankly, the show is much better than my performance … Ian was like a little kid, playing with the props and playing with the language and he never lost the sense of fun of it all. I wasn't operating at that same level.”

Also in 2006, he made a guest appearance in an episode of the NBC comedy My Name is Earl.

In 2007, Olyphant starred in the romantic comedy Catch and Release and was excited to be co-starring with Jennifer Garner whom he had known when they were struggling actors in New York. Also in 2007, he was cast in the action movies Live Free and Die Hard and Hitman. For the Hitman he reluctantly agreed to shave his head, but it was worth it because the film was a commercial success grossing over $100 million despite negative reviews.

In 2008, he had a supporting role as a Lieutenant Colonel in Stop-Loss. He also voiced the character Cowboy in the video game Turok.

Olyphant starred in the FX modern-day western series Justified as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. The character was created by novelist Elmore Leonard who was an executive producer of Justified and became a good friend of Olyphant. His final novel Raylan (2012) was inspired by the award-winning series. Raylan Givens was the defining role of Olyphant's career. Olyphant also served as a co-executive producer on Justified working with Graham Yost and the writing team and went on set on his days off to work with guest stars. Olyphant stated that producing was the “greatest thing about this job”. Justified was awarded a Peabody Award in 2011.

During the Justified six-season run, Olyphant made occasional guest appearances on comedy television shows – The Office (2010), The League (2012) and a voiced character in an episode of the FX animated series Archer. In 2013, he appeared as a love interest on the Fox comedy The Mindy Project.

In 2015, Olyphant was a recurring guest in the Fox comedy The Grinder.

In 2016, HBO announced that David Milch was developing a two-hour film of Deadwood and the long-awaited follow-up of the Deadwood series began production in 2018. Deadwood: The Movie premiered on HBO in 2019.

In 2017, Olyphant starred in the horror-comedy Santa Clarita Diet, also serving as an executive producer for the series.

In 2020, Olyphant appeared as Cobb Vanth in the second season of the Disney space Western The Mandalorian.

In 2022, FX is producing a Justified sequel series and Timothy's teen daughter stars as his onscreen daughter.

PERSONAL LIFE

Timothy and his wife Alexis

Olyphant has been married to his college sweetheart Alexis Knief since 1991. They live in Westwood, Los Angeles and have three children.

From 2006 to late 2008, Olyphant was the sports reported for the Joe Escalante morning show on Los Angeles Indie 103.1.

TRIVIA

His older brother, Andy Olyphant is an A & R executive for Warner Brothers Records. His younger brother, Matt Olyphant, was the lead singer for Fetish.
His last name is pronounced “All-uh-fint”.
He was considered for the role of Tony Stark in Iron Man (2008).
His maternal great-grandfather, Abraham Gideon, was a Jewish immigrant from Tula, Russia.
Timothy's paternal grandmother, Adele Sloane Hammond, was the sister-in-law of musician Benny Goodman.
He is a third cousin of journalist Anderson Cooper and second cousin of Gloria Vanderbilt.
He is a good friend of Conan O'Brien and has frequently been a guest on his talk show.