Timothy David Olyphant (born May 20, 1968) is an American actor. He began his acting career in an off-Broadway theater in 1995 with the play The Monogamist. He won the Theatre World Award for his performance in this play. In 1996, he first performed in David Sedaris’s The Santaland Diaries. He later started working in films. In the early years of his career, he often played villains in supporting roles in movies such as Scream 2 (1997), Go (1999), Gone in 60 Seconds, The Broken Hearts Club (2000), A Man Apart (2003), and The Girl Next Door (2004).
Olyphant became more widely known for his role as Sheriff Seth Bullock in HBO’s western series Deadwood (2004–2006). He later played the same character again in Deadwood: The Movie (2019). He had leading roles in films such as Catch and Release (2006), Hitman (2007), A Perfect Getaway (2009), and The Crazies (2010). He also played the main villain, Thomas Gabriel, in Live Free or Die Hard (2007). Olyphant appeared in many episodes of the FX legal drama Damages (2009).
From 2010 to 2015, Olyphant played Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in the FX series Justified, a modern-day Kentucky drama. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2011 for this role. After Justified ended, Olyphant appeared in films like Mother’s Day (2016), Snowden (2016), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and Amsterdam (2022). He also had guest roles in television sitcoms such as The Office (2010), The Mindy Project (2013), and The Grinder (2015–2016), for which he won a Critics’ Choice Award. He starred in the Netflix comedy series Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2019). In 2020, he played himself in a short scene on The Good Place, parodying his Justified character. That same year, he appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm (season 10), Fargo (season 4), and The Mandalorian (season 2, episode “Chapter 9: The Marshal”), where he played Cobb Vanth. He later played this character again in The Book of Boba Fett. Olyphant returned to his Justified role as Raylan Givens in the 2023 miniseries Justified: City Primeval. In 2025, he starred in the FX series Alien: Earth.
Early life and education
Born on May 20, 1968, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Olyphant moved to Modesto, California, when he was two years old. His parents are Katherine (née Gideon) Olyphant and John Vernon Bevan Olyphant, who worked in the wine industry. He has an older brother named Andrew and a younger brother named Matthew. His parents divorced when he was a teenager, and both later married other people.
Olyphant is a family member of the Vanderbilt family from New York. His great-great-grandfather on his father’s side was Cornelius Vanderbilt, a leader of the family. The name Olyphant comes from Scotland. His great-grandfather, David Olyphant, and his great-great-grandfather, Robert Morrison Olyphant, were both successful businesspeople.
Olyphant went to Fred C. Beyer High School in Modesto. As a child, he felt uncomfortable about acting but enjoyed drawing and art. He swam competitively and was a finalist in the 200m Individual Medley at the 1986 Nationals. He was invited to join the University of Southern California’s swimming team by coach Peter Daland. During a visit to the university, he hoped to study architecture but was told it would be difficult to balance with swimming.
Instead, he chose to study Fine Arts. However, he left the university one class short of completing his degree. He returned 30 years later and finished his degree by taking an online course during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1990, he planned to complete his degree and apply for a master’s in Fine Arts. He briefly considered a career in commercial art. While working as a swimming coach at Irvine Novaquatics, he decided to move to New York to explore other opportunities. He tried stand-up comedy for six months and occasionally returned to it later. Eventually, he chose to become an actor. During his final year of college, he took an acting class at UC Irvine and found it enjoyable. He completed a two-year acting program at New York’s William Esper Studio and began trying for acting roles.
Career
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Timothy Olyphant's first paid acting job was in a 1995 WB television pilot based on 77 Sunset Strip. Phyllis Huffman cast him in the role, but he did not get a chance to meet the show's producer, Clint Eastwood, who left days before filming began. Later that year, he made his professional Off-Broadway debut in the Playwrights Horizons' production of The Monogamist and received the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance. He starred in the world premiere of The SantaLand Diaries (1996) at the Atlantic Theater Company, a one-man play based on David Sedaris's essay about working as a Macy's department store Christmas elf. Ben Brantley of The New York Times felt that Olyphant did a wonderful job when imitating other characters but had a harder time finding a convincing style for the running narrative. Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News remarked that he delivered all the drollery with a perfect deadpan and a twinkle, while David Patrick Stearns of USA Today described him as an excellent young actor who successfully projected the world-weariness of a young 20-something who slowly evolves into somebody who just might believe in Christmas.
Olyphant made his feature film debut in The First Wives Club (1996) as an eager young director who attempts to cast Elise Elliot (Goldie Hawn)—who thinks she will be playing the leading lady—in the role of the elderly mother. On the same day that film was released, he made his television debut in the pilot of the CBS spy series Mr. & Mrs. Smith. In 1997, Olyphant made a guest appearance as Officer Brett Farraday in three episodes of the ABC police drama High Incident and returned to New York's Playwrights Horizons to play a supporting role in Plunge. He also had minor roles in the romantic comedy A Life Less Ordinary and the CBS television film Ellen Foster. Olyphant's most high-profile role of 1997 was as a film student later revealed as one of the killers in the successful horror film Scream 2, bringing "a degree of wild-eyed flair to the role," according to HitFix's Chris Eggertsen. He later described the role as "a gift. I had virtually nothing on my resume at that point. I'm sure some of it was made up."
Olyphant returned to television in 1998 for a guest starring role in an episode of the HBO sitcom Sex and the City, playing a love interest for Carrie Bradshaw. Sarah Jessica Parker later said the episode, "Valley of the Twenty Something Guys," was her favorite of the series. Also that year, he had supporting roles in the HBO war film When Trumpets Fade and the independent ensemble drama 1999. Two little-seen films were released in 1999: the drama Advice from a Caterpillar, in which Olyphant played the bisexual love interest of Cynthia Nixon's character, and the offbeat ensemble comedy No Vacancy, in which he starred with Christina Ricci. Olyphant received positive notices for portraying a drug dealer in the cult comedy Go (1999). Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted that the role was "played with offbeat flair" while Todd McCarthy of Variety described it as a "deftly etched" performance. He was set to star in the fantasy film Practical Magic, but he was replaced by Aidan Quinn.
After Olyphant's performance in Go, the film's producer Mickey Liddell offered him his choice of parts in his next project The Broken Hearts Club (2000), a romantic comedy about a group of gay friends living in West Hollywood. The Village Voice's Dennis Lim commented that his leading performance was better than the film deserved: "Olyphant is charismatic enough for his worst lines not to stick." However, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle felt he played the part "like a straight actor gaying it up." Olyphant played a detective in the successful action film Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) and joked in an interview about the challenges of playing "second fiddle to a car"; his performance reminded The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter of a young Bill Paxton.
Olyphant was offered a starring role for a character called Dominic Toretto in another car film called Redline—that would later be retitled The Fast and the Furious. According to Sony producer Neal H. Moritz, "The studio said, 'If you can get Timothy Olyphant to play that role we will greenlight the movie.'" Olyphant declined the role, which went to Vin Diesel. The film went on to be a massive success with nine sequels to date. Olyphant later discussed passing on a lot of roles earlier in his career. In 2011, when asked by The Hollywood Reporter what was the most absurd project he had ever been pitched, he replied, "I've passed on absurd projects and they have become enormous, enormous hits spawning numerous sequels, and I'm not in them." In 2018, he reflected on passing on the role of Toretto in The Fast and the Furious, thinking it would be "stupid" and would bomb at the box office.
Olyphant also had supporting roles in the musical comedy Rock Star, the crime drama Auggie Rose, and the romantic comedy Head Over Heels (all 2001). He starred in the short film Doppelganger (2001) and appeared in an episode of the Sci-Fi Channel horror series Night Visions (2002).
The independent drama Coastlines made its debut at the 2002 SXSW Festival, but failed to find a distributor until 2006. Olyphant starred opposite Josh Brolin as an ex-con who returns to his Florida hometown to collect a $200,000 debt. Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times wrote that he "possesses the kind of thousand-yard stare that suggests something deeper going on," while Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly remarked that "Olyphant, in the sort of role that Paul Newman used to swagger through, has a star's easy command." However, Todd McCarthy of Variety felt his performance "sort of floats along."
Olyphant's most high-profile role of 2003 was in A Man Apart, an action film starring Vin Diesel. Desson Howe of The Washington Post remarked that Olyphant "gets a kudo or two for [having] the good sense to realize he's playing one of the movie's many one-dimensional characters, so he might as well have insane fun." Similarly, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle noted that "the most lively character in 'A Man Apart' turns out [to be] a middling drug dealer played to the hilt by Timothy Olyphant." He appeared in the film adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel Dreamcatcher as one of four friends attacked by parasitic aliens. The film was poorly reviewed, with David Rooney of Variety remarking: "Only Lee and Olyphant come close to hitting the right note of tongue-in-cheek humor that might have made all this palatable. Unfortunately, they're the first to go." Also in 2003, he appeared in the independent ensemble drama The Safety of Objects.
Olyphant received widespread praise for his 2004 performance as a porn film producer in the comedy The Girl Next Door. He was initially reluctant to audition for the part, feeling it was too similar to some of his previous roles but, "as my manager dutifully reminded me, not many people saw those movies." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle described the character of Kelly as "a leering, magnetic, frightening, glad-handing, easily-amused, hyper-sensitive, utterly deceitful, maddeningly likable wild man. When Olyphant is on screen, there's the feeling that things might go anywhere." A.O. Scott of The New York Times remarked that the part was played with "a throwaway inventiveness" while Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt it was played "with wonderful comic zest." David Edelstein of Slate enjoyed his "spaced-out volatility. Olyphant's Kelly is a brilliant synthesis of poses." Joe Leydon of Variety said he "strikes an impressively deft balance of hearty amiability and understated menace in his scene-stealing turn."
Personal life
Olyphant has been married to his college sweetheart, Alexis Knief, since 1991. The couple lives in Westwood, Los Angeles, and has three children. His daughter, Vivian, portrays his character’s daughter in the television series Justified: City Primeval.
From 2006 to late 2008, Olyphant worked as a sports reporter for Joe Escalante’s morning radio show on Los Angeles’ Indie 103.1. Film director David Lynch served as the show’s weatherman. Olyphant called the station every weekday, delivering his reports in a unique way. After the station closed, he joked, “If you need sports reports from an actor who often shares what he remembers from the previous day or reads directly from the newspaper, I am your person.”
Olyphant is also a tennis player and has competed in many celebrity tournaments. He supports the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2013, he threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Dodgers game.