Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross have been married for well over three decades at this point, and after all these years they remain a source of inspiration and a model to all of us of a healthy happy successful marriage. It’s notable that at the beginning of their relationship, she was a huge star, with leading roles in The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid alongside Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Sam, by comparison, was a less well known character actor. But over they years, his career has grown while Katharine, though still a well known and successful actress, is not nearly as prominent in the business as she was then.
To explain his wife’s career trajectory, Sam has said that she is not as hungry for the roles as she should be, that she doesn’t “chase it” so to speak. He believes that she deserves bigger and better things in – Hollywood. An he’s certainly right about that.
Doesn’t Feel Typecast
“I think there’s a real truth to Westerns and a real simplicity to them that appeals to people”. These are not the words of a man who feels trapped or typecast as a one-dimensional cowboy. Sam Elliott sees the Western genre as a valid and very human form of cinematic artistic expression, and one that really speaks to him.
And why not? Crime, comedy, romance, war are all movie genres that have included indisputable classics. And the Western is no different. The entire human condition, in the right hands, can be portrayed on the screen.
It’s Not All About The Money
Who doesn’t like money? In that sense, Sam Elliott is no different from anyone else. But he does not put money at the center of his life. As for his voiceover work that he is so well known for (especially in commercials), he actually says he enjoys it because it’s easy and it gives him the financial security and freedom to be as picky as he wants to be about the movie roles he accepts. And it is that pickiness that he credits for his Hollywood longevity, as we’ve read before.
As a matter of fact, Sam often advises younger actors to avoid the temptation of accepting a job just for the money. He himself was forced to do that a few times when he was young, struggling, unknown, and poor. But it was never the path he had planned for himself, the path he has walked ever since.
Beef’s For Dinner
If you own a television, it’s pretty much a guarantee that you have been hearing Sam Elliot’s velvet baritone speaking to you for years, even if you haven’t seen his face. Among the notable voice-over work he has done is a series of ads for the beef industry over a number of years. If you recognize the tag line, “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner,” then you probably know Sam’s voice.
He agreed to do the ads as a way of helping out the hard-working ranchers and others in the industry. But he grew tired of the advertising agency’s increasingly demanding attitude and eventually moved on to greener pastures, so to speak.
Sam’s Seen Changes
After five decades in front of the screen, it goes without saying that Sam Elliott has witnessed some changes in how movies are made. Not everything is different, of course. Human nature, the need to memorize lines and act them out, and much more. “There are some constants that are never going to change”, he has said. Still, when asked what is the biggest change of all, Sam doesn’t hesitate to answer that it’s the technology.
“Changes that have been made in the technological world have revolutionized the movie business on almost every level,” Sam has said. It’s most obvious in the field of special effects, but it pervades every part of production of every kind of movie. From the guts of the camera to the size and placement of the microphone, to the tools available in the editing room. Everything has changed.