Taylor Sheridan’s Failed Acting Dream Led to Creating Yellowstone: The Story You Need to Know!

Taylor Sheridan, the creator of Yellowstone, is now associated with one of the biggest television franchises currently running. Although he is primarily known for his creative contributions, his face is also familiar to fans of the Western series, as he plays Travis Wheatley, a horse trader who appears in several episodes.

Before becoming one of Hollywood’s most influential screenwriters, Sheridan attempted to establish a career as an actor. Born and raised in Texas, he moved to Los Angeles in the ’90s and landed minor roles in series such as “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”.

“It wasn’t my destiny”

His strong jawline and distinctive Texan accent quickly typecast him into roles as cops or tough guys. While the film industry ignored him, his television career seemed to be taking off in 2005 when he secured a supporting role in the series “Veronica Mars”. Despite playing the character Danny Boyd for five episodes, he failed to make a lasting impression on the show’s fans.

The series “Sons of Anarchy” provided him another opportunity to leave a more memorable mark. In the show’s early seasons, Sheridan played the character of Deputy Chief David Hale, a determined cop who stood up against bikers led by Ron Perlman and Charlie Hunnam. After 21 episodes, his character was killed off following complaints about his salary to the show’s producers.

“The plan was always to become a huge movie star, then retire to a ranch and only make movies with Martin Scorsese whenever I felt like it,” Sheridan confessed in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “But that wasn’t my destiny, in the end.”

From failed actor to Hollywood’s star screenwriter

Realizing that his acting dreams would not come to fruition, Sheridan decided to focus solely on writing. On the brink of bankruptcy, he sold his first film script, “Sicario”, which was directed by Denis Villeneuve. After writing the script for “Comancheria”, he concluded his “American frontier trilogy” in 2017 with “Wind River”, which he also directed.

In the following year, Sheridan made his big comeback to television as the creator of “Yellowstone”, a Western series that has since been expanded into a saga with numerous spin-offs (2024 and 6666) and prequels (1923 and 1883, and soon 1944).

Since then, Sheridan has maintained a strict work discipline that allows him to juggle multiple projects while retaining control over them. He is currently credited as the creator of six series (including “Tulsa King” with Sylvester Stallone and “Mayor of Kingstown” with Jeremy Renner), with several more in development.

Although he didn’t become the movie star he dreamed of being, Sheridan certainly can’t complain about being one of the most active screenwriters of the current era. And his success doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon!

All of the “Yellowstone” universe series are now exclusively available on Paramount+.

Discover the list of series currently available on the platform!

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