The point to this thread (aside from the title) is to indicate where you’ve seen the ex-Deadwood actors after the show was cancelled. It’s not an attempt to outdo IMDb, in spite of how it might look. In my own case, I have not seen quite a few of the more popular series like Lost where these folks are showing up in sizeable numbers, but I have had more than a few occasions where somebody will look familiar enough for me to go check cast lists at IMDb for where else they have appeared. Often those other shows include Deadwood. Thus this thread.
Keith Carradine and Timothy Olyphant have both had recurring roles in “Damages.” Carradine was in season 3, while Olyphant mostly appeared in season 2, but also returned in the season 3 finale.
In looking over the Full cast and crew for “Deadwood” (2004) which shows that 36 episodes were made, I’m finding it to be the case that unless an actor was in at least 8 or 10 episodes there’s a better than even chance that I wouldn’t associate that actor with Deadwood even if I have seen him or her in more than one other role elsewhere since then.
I also thought it would be fun to locate some actor whose very first credit was in Deadwood to see if he or she has gone on to other shows of note. So far, no hits in that category.
There’s one case, that of Cynthia Ettinger (pictured here) whom I remember better from Carnivale but whom I saw in a rerun of an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (2000) – some time after Deadwood had folded – where she was a “fellatio teacher” that Larry David met in a bar or whatever, and I spent the next span of time until I could get to IMDb trying to decide where I had seen her before. It finally hit me that she was in Carnivale and then the appearance in Deadwood finally clicked, too. But I’m having trouble remembering her Deadwood character all that well. Was she in the theater troupe with Brian Cox? If not, who was “Claudia” and why was she in 10 episodes of the final season of Deadwood?
Yes, she was in the theater troupe. If I remember right (I haven’t rewatched S3), she was in love with Cox and jealous of the “woman in red”. We never did find out what the woman in red was all about, did we?
I had all the Deadwood transcripts but lost them the other day when my hard drive crashed.
Detective Lassiter from Psych was Alma Garrett’s husband, who was thrown off a cliff by Dan Dority after the first few episodes so Swearingen could get his claim, which pretty much set the entire plot of the show in motion.
Alma Garrett I most recently saw as the main housewife from the now-cancelled Swingtown.
And Leon Rippy (Tom Nuttal) plays the angel in Saving Grace, but I’ve been aware of him since he was the southern guy that was cryogenically frozen and unthawed in that TNG episode.
Keith Carradine also showed up frequently in Dexter until last season. I regularly watch Psych and enjoy seeing Timothy Omundson ham it up.
Garret Dillahunt shows up everywhere, really. He’s always playing some weirdo in a show or movie I watch lately. He’s one of the best character actors working right now, I think.
One of my favourite Deadwood actors to see pop up in new stuff is Pavel (Pasha) Lychnikoff, who played the Russian Telegraph Operator. As he is genuinely Russian, he gets a few key Eastern European character roles, and I think he’s excellent value.
I’ve been hesitating to mention Sean Bridgers – (would it hurt IMDb to get a decent picture?) (better shot here) – who played Johnny Burns, and was even featured in that clip upthread with the tremendous fight scene with Dan and Captain Turner (Allan Graf ), because even though I have seen his later performances in Bones, Lie to Me and The Mentalist (all mentioned in his credits at IMDb), I didn’t really recognize him as a Deadwood alumnus. But there it is.
As pointed out, Jim Beaver is on Supernatural and was on Harper’s Island. He was also a Doper, by the way.
Harper’s Island is great on DVD or streamed. My wife and I liked it a lot as a “junk food” kind of show, but we watched one per day and would have never watched it with commercials and only airing weekly.
He was also Tommy Lee Jones’ deputy in No Country for Old Men, and played the lead psychopath in the remake of Last House On the the Left. He’s been very busy indeed, and might have been the best actor on Deadwood.
Now there’s a thought: just who was the best actor on Deadwood?
I don’t think I would have thought of Garret Dillahunt as my first choice, but now that you’ve mentioned him in that light, I won’t argue that he’s among the better ones. His abilities at playing slightly different versions of characters were obvious in the Terminator show, and I was impressed with him in the John from Cincinnati exercise, although I didn’t really like the show itself.
It’s true, Ian is my favorite actor from the show. But Garret hits number two tied with Jim. They all have a really versatile range, and serious intensity when needed.
When I hear any of those three actors are in something I’ll probably check it out.
To flip this coin over, if I may, I’m wondering if there’s any actor with more than one episode’s involvement who didn’t excel at the characterization required of him or her. Over and above the excellent writing and the authenticity of the sets and costumes, I believe what made the show so special was the wall-to-wall excellence of the acting.
Some of the characters weren’t all that outstanding as characters go, but the actors bringing those characters to life were usually well past adequate in their jobs.
But to be fair, are there actors in the show that you think were below par for their roles?
