Timothy David Olyphant (born May 20, 1968) is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Seth Bullock in Deadwood, Raylan Givens in Justified, Danny Cordray in The Office, and Wes Krulik in Damages. He has also starred in the films Scream 2, Gone in 60 Seconds, Dreamcatcher, Live Free or Die Hard, The Girl Next Door, A Perfect Getaway, The Crazies, Hitman and I Am Number Four.

Early life[link]

Olyphant was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of Katherine and John Vernon Bevan Olyphant, a college teacher who worked for a winery.^[1][2] Olyphant's family moved to Modesto, California, a city southeast of San Francisco, where he was raised.^[3][4] Olyphant began competitive swimming at age 6, and in middle school started training seriously under swim coach Darrell Lohrke, who came to Modesto via Arden Hills Swimming and Tennis Club. Olyphant made remarkable strides and soon became a nationally ranked swimmer. He was a finalist at the USA Swimming Short Course National Championships in 1986 in the 200 Individual Medley.^[5] He graduated from Modesto's Fred C. Beyer High School that year.^[6]

Olyphant continued swimming competitively at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he studied fine art. He took a beginning acting class as an elective at UC Irvine in order to fulfill the final credits he needed to graduate from USC. Olyphant then decided to move to New York City to study acting rather than pursue a master's degree in fine arts. He took acting classes with William Esper at William Esper Studio for two years, and then started looking for acting work.^[7]

Career[link]

Olyphant made his professional off-Broadway debut in 1995 in the Playwrights Horizons' production of The Monogamist in the role of Tim Hapgood. He received the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance for his performance.^[8] He subsequently appeared in the one-man play The SantaLand Diaries in 1996, which was written by David Sedaris and adapted and directed by Joe Mantello,^[9] and in the play Plunge.

Olyphant returned to Los Angeles and found work in television. In 1995 he landed his first TV role in a pilot for a remake of the series 77 Sunset Strip, produced by Clint Eastwood. He was cast in the pilot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1996), a short-lived CBS spy series, as Scooby, Mr. Smith's (Scott Bakula's) assistant.^[10] Olyphant appeared in 3 episodes of the acclaimed police drama High Incident and in the 1997 Hallmark Channel TV film Ellen Foster. A role in the HBO movie When Trumpets Fade was next in 1998, which was a dramatization of the 1944 Battle of Hürtgen Forest. This was followed by a guest starring role in the Sex and the City episode "Valley of the Twenty Something Guys" as one of Carrie Bradshaw's boyfriends.

Olyphant made his feature film debut with a small part in The First Wives Club (1996). He appeared briefly in A Life Less Ordinary (1997), which starred Ewan McGregor, but gained notice appearing in the horror film Scream 2 (1997), as a cynical film student, Mickey. He portrayed the drug dealer Todd Gaines in the comedy-drama Go (1999), directed by Doug Liman, which also starred Katie Holmes, Scott Wolf and Sarah Polley, and featured a script by first time screenwriter John August.^[4] His next film roles were in Advice from a Caterpillar (1999), No Vacancy (1999), The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000) and Gone in 60 Seconds (2000).

He had roles in Rock Star (2001) and Dreamcatcher (2003). In 2004 he played a porn film producer in The Girl Next Door alongside Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert.

Olyphant played the lead role of Sheriff Seth Bullock in HBO's Deadwood for three seasons from 2004 until 2006. Olyphant considered it to be one of his first lead roles as a "complicated" and "complex" character.^[11]

In January 2007, Olyphant appeared in the comedy Catch and Release, playing the love interest of Jennifer Garner. Olyphant was cast in the role over several other known actors, including Matthew Fox.^[12] Olyphant had studied acting with Garner when he first moved to New York.^[3] He next appeared in Live Free or Die Hard as a cyber-terrorist villain, and in Hitman as the title character. Olyphant shaved his head for his role in Hitman. His 2008 roles included Stop-Loss, about the Iraq War in which he played a Lieutenant Colonel, Meet Bill, a comedy co-starring Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba, and a voice-acting role in Turok (2008) as Cowboy.

Olyphant served as the daily on-air, unpaid sports commentator for Joe Escalante's morning show on the LA radio station Indie 103.1, until the channel's demise in January 2009.

In June 2008 he joined the cast of FX's show Damages, starring Glenn Close. He was also cast at the same time in the Christina Applegate sitcom Samantha Who? but his part was recast with Billy Zane. ^[13] In 2009, he starred with Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich in the thriller A Perfect Getaway as an Iraq war veteran and possible serial killer of honeymooners on the Hawaii islands. In 2010, he was featured in the lead role of the town sheriff in the remake of the film The Crazies.

In the spring of 2010 Olyphant landed the lead role of Raylan Givens in the FX series Justified. His character is a 21st century U.S. Marshal who is banished back to his home state of Kentucky for questionable actions in Miami. Givens wears a Stetson hat and behaves like an Old West sheriff. The show is based on a character created by Elmore Leonard in the novels Pronto and Riding the Rap, and the short story "Fire in the Hole," which served as the basis for the pilot. The same year Olyphant played a paper salesman in two episodes of the seventh season of the NBC comedy The Office. He returned to the role for Steve Carell's second-to-last episode, but his scenes were cut. However, they can be seen on the Season 7 DVD. Olyphant's most recent film role was in the 2011 animated feature Rango as the voice of Spirit of the West.

Personal life[link]

Olyphant lives in Westwood, Los Angeles with his wife and their three children. The couple were married in July 1991.^[3]

Film and television credits[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Timothy Olyphant

• Timothy Olyphant at the Internet Movie Database
• Timothy Olyphant at Emmys.com