Cowboy on the croisette

"I used to kind of think, 'God, all I do is westerns.' But I've gotten over that, I've grown up and now I'm just thankful that I had this career, rather than wishing I had opportunities to do a few things outside the western box, more than I have. Because I enjoy that.

"
Elliott has been both laconic and iconic in a series of films -- real cowboy roles like Tombstone, in which he played Virgil Earp, and iconic, laconic ones like The Big Lebowski, in which he played the narrator known only as The Stranger. Elliott got his start in movies with a bit part in the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ("I was like, card player No. 2, which was basically an extra -- one line, off camera") that co-starred his future wife, Katharine Ross.

But they didn't meet until 10 years later when they made what he calls "a not-very-good horror movie called The Legacy." They've been together ever since: they live in California with their daughter, Cleo.
One of the things Elliott would like to do is stretch a little more beyond his usual roles.

He had a supporting role in the Joan Allen movie The Contender, in which he played a presidential chief of staff. He shaved his moustache, cut his hair, wore a three-piece suit, and "it was incredible. Incredible.

And I loved doing that. And I hope to get more opportunities to do that. I'd like to do something classic.

I'd like to do something with a voice coach all the way through a production and try to fool somebody that I'm really something different. And shift this western, this southwest thing.