Home on His Range

Though he’s played contemporary roles in such films as “Lifeguard,” “Rush” and “Sibling Rivalry,” Sam Elliott seems more at home on the range, doing westerns.

Tall, lanky, laconic and usually sporting a bushy mustache of epic proportions, the 55-year-old Elliott seems to have stepped out of the pages of a Louis L’Amour novel or off the canvas of a Fredrick Remington painting in westerns such as “The Sacketts,” “Conagher” and “The Quick and the Dead.”

The actor is most definitely in his element in the new TNT sagebrush saga, “You Know My Name,” which premieres Sunday on the cable network. Set in 1924, the western tells the story of the last six months in the life of the legendary Oklahoma lawman Bill Tilghman, who was called back into service to bring law and order to an Oklahoma mining town beset with crime, booze and prostitutes. Arliss Howard also stars as the vile federal marshal Wylie Lynn, who becomes Tilghman’s nemesis and Carolyn McCormack plays his wife.

Elliott “gets better and better [as an actor],” says the film’s writer and director John Kent Harrison, praising Elliott’s authenticity.

“The hat is right,” Harrison says. “The gun is right. The horse riding is right. Everything is pure and real.”

“I try to get as close to the truth as possible,” offers Elliott, who, sitting in the conference room of his Beverly Hills agent, looks surprisingly cosmopolitan. Clean-shaven, the handsome silver-haired actor is dressed more like a corporate businessman than cowboy in a dark gray suit.

“On some level, particularly with a guy like Tilghman, who was such an upstanding character -- I thought he was one of the classic Americans -- you have a responsibility . . . to be historically accurate.”

Getting the hat right was a major concern for Elliott, who is married to actress Katharine Ross. As for Tilghman, Elliott copies the lawman’s tall, white cowboy hat. For years, Elliott has worked with Lester Bayliss who operates American Costume, the “best costume house” in Hollywood, to get the right looks for his characters.

“He has the best period costumes around,” Elliott says. “I have been working with him since ‘The Sacketts.’ He and I always talk about the hat--get the hat right and the rest of it just follows along.”

Elliott, whose family hails from Texas, has discovered over the decades that westerns attract great people in terms of crew and actors. “There’s something about people who like being outdoors, being around animals, being around horses,” he says. “It’s almost a different kind of a mentality, whether it is working on this show or a movie like ‘Tombstone’ [in which he also starred]. It draws a certain type of people.”

He admits that for years he agonized about being typecast. “I still have moments of that, but the older I get, my perspective has just changed,” he explains. “Now, after having a career for 31 years, I am just thankful that I have had. It has allowed me great opportunities to play some wonderful characters.”

Elliott, who is an executive producer of the film with Brandon Stoddard and Amy Adelson, knew for years just what a wonderful character Tilghman was. “He is one of those unsung heroes and a lawman for nearly 50 years,” the actor says.

“In Oklahoma, Tilghman far outshines the reputations of people like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson,” says writer and director Harrison. “He is certainly the hero of the territory.”

Once he was signed to do the film, Harrison went to Oklahoma City to do research on Tilghman. “I dove into the research and it was like striking gold,” Harrison says. “There are so many elements that were exciting and original. It portrayed America in the interplay of the western moral code and the jazz edge.”

“You Know My Name” was shot in the badlands of Alberta, Canada, last year. “We wanted to shoot in Oklahoma, but we couldn’t find a place where we could get a vista of the Old West,” says Harrison. “My concept was that he lived on the last 10 yards of the frontier of the Old West and then, when he would ride from his home to this town, he would ride out of the past and into the present. I wanted to find a giant space where you could define the horizon. I guess that is what Monument Valley [in Utah] did for John Ford.”

Though western movies have done exceptionally well for TNT, HBO and the broadcast networks, Elliott agonizes over why the feature film world has virtually abandoned the genre.

“There is, on some level, snob appeal in this town -- who decides to do what,” he explains. “They think they are above the mentality that westerns appeal to. I don’t think they know the difference between a good western and a bad western. The audience knows, however. Westerns are like anything else -- you need to service a great script, you need to have some great characters, you need to have a place to go.”

“You Know My Name” premieres Sunday at 8 p.m., 10 p.m. and midnight on TNT; it repeats throughout the month. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14).