Before Yellowstone, Kevin Costner starred in a Western series with Bill Paxton

For whatever reason, those in the film and television industry seem inclined to give Kevin Costner a ten-gallon hat and put him on a horse. Well, if we’re being realistic, it’s often the “Dances with Wolves” director who casts himself to play cowboys, as was also the case when he starred in his feature-length directorial efforts “Open Range” and “Horizon: An.” “American Epic – Chapter One.” You can actually trace the “Yellowstone” veteran’s connection to the Western musical to the early days of his career when he starred in Lawrence Kasdan’s 1985 Oscar-nominated film “Silverado.” The pair have yet to meet Wyatt Earp’s nearly a decade is fine by comparison; Although Costner always championed the three-hour epic.

Funnily enough, Kasdan’s 1994 film (which also took the ill-advised step of arriving just six months after George P. Cosmatos’ gun show, Wyatt Earp-focused classic Tombstone) isn’t even Costner’s longest stay in the movie business. Old West. That would be “Hatfields & McCoys,” the 2012 three-part miniseries on the History Channel that reunites Costner with “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “Waterworld” helmsman Kevin Reynolds. In addition to being the project that finally broke Reynolds out of director prison after 2006’s “Tristan & Isolde” (A period piece that failed despite Sir Ridley Scott’s name being prominently attached as producer), a dramatization of the infamous feud between Hatfield and McCoy pits Costner against another actor who looks — and sounds — straight into a cowboy hat: the late, great Bill Paxton.

Ironically, Costner himself, having become a Western staple, was “born downtown, in Compton, California,” he explained. Collider While promoting “Hatfields & McCoys” in a 2012 interview. According to the Oscar winner, you can draw a straight line between his personal love of the genre and his experience watching “Jimmy Stewart in a Canoe” in John Ford and Henry Hathaway’s sweeping 1962 Western. titled “How the West ‘Won'” when he was only seven years old. This in turn fueled his love of US history, which is why he knew all about the bloody, vicious conflict. Which lasted for many years between the Hatfields and the McCoys before signing on for the Reynolds miniseries.

The actor only continued to delve into the events that led to William Anderson “Devil’s Lance” Hatfield and Randolph “Randall” McCoy (played by Costner and Paxton in “The Hatfields and McCoys”) — and their two clans — going from dear friends to bitter enemies near the end of the American Civil War. When you join the offer. Based on his reading, Costner attributed it more to generational trauma and “incredible fury” in the war’s aftermath than to grudges between the Hatfield and McCoy patriarchs. You can probably trust that the man knows what he’s talking about too, given his meticulous preparation for the role. This extended to choosing the right hat for Devil Anse, a process that Costner confirmed to Collider was a “pretty big deal.”

Critics were relatively complimentary of “Hatfields & McCoys” (which Costner also produced), although they felt it was a bit too heavy-handed for its own good. Willa Baskin, Writing for the salonwas in complete agreement with this sentiment, writing, “It has law and lawlessness against a background of grime, grit and rough sounds, but all of this is presented humorlessly and full of self-seriousness.” Whatever the case, viewers came out in droves to see Costner and Paxton kick dirt in each other’s faces, as the miniseries’ premiere became easily the most-watched non-sports telecast in ad-supported cable history at the time and setting. Register for the History Channel.

turns out, Kevin Costner and TV Westerns are a collection of dynamite ratings – who knew?