Why Shea Brennan From Yellowstone Prequel 1883 Looks So Familiar

Regarding the general type-casting of Sam Elliott as a world-weary cowboy over the years, it has a lot to do with his undeniably Western-y persona, his iconic mustache, and the fact that he's just proven exceedingly good at playing such characters since the early days of his career. Likewise, many films have made excellent use of Elliott's Western wiles (see "Gunsmoke," "Tombstone," "Justified," and more), though few felt quite as in on the type-casting joke as Joel and Ethan Coen's madcap 1998 crime comedy "The Big Lebowski."

Elliott seems to be in on the joke himself — a fact made clear by his not-quite-cheeky work as the film's pseudo-narrator, a mysterious cowboy known only as The Stranger. Sadly, Elliott's seemingly omnipotent, sarsaparilla-loving Stranger only had a couple of scenes in "The Big Lebowski." Still, the actor more than made the most of his limited screen time, delivering both a performance and a character as unforgettable as any in the film — which is saying a lot, since "The Big Lebowski" is absolutely bursting at the seams with unforgettable characters and show-stopping performances.