Yellowstone's Taylor Sheridan Has One Actor He Just Can't Help But Kill
If you tuned into "Special Ops: Lioness" this summer, after watching the rest of screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's ever-growing catalog, you may have come away each week surprised to see the character Two Cups still kicking. That's because the actor who plays the CIA special agent in the Paramount+ thriller is James Jordan, who's become notorious for dying in Sheridan's projects. In fact, when asked about Jordan's recurring deaths in an interview with Deadline last year, Sheridan called the actor "my pinch-hitter, when I need to kill somebody."
Jordan's characters have died memorably in three Sheridan projects and counting, beginning all the way back with the 2017 film "Wind River." The film is a bleak look at the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women through the lens of two white investigators trying to solve a murder, and Jordan plays the despicable party responsible. His character, Pete, is revealed to have brutalized a teenager named Natalie (Kelsey Asbille), and after an ominous showdown with law enforcement, he ends up wounded and on the run. Jordan's murderous character ultimately dies in a karmically awful way, covered in blood, with his lungs frozen by the harsh Wyoming weather. This was the end for Pete, but just the beginning of Sheridan's habit of killing off Jordan's character.
James Jordan is Sheridan's 'pinch-hitter'
Jordan also appeared — and then died — in both the "Yellowstone" prequel "1883" and crime drama "Mayor of Kingstown," though he made it nearly to the end of a full season of both shows. In "1883," Jordan played camp cook Cookie, who ends up shot through by arrows when the dwindling group of Westward-bound settlers cross Lakota territory. In "Mayor of Kingstown," Jordan portrayed prison guard and total a-hole Ed Simmons, whose obvious hatred for the inmates under his purview ultimately led to his unceremonious death during a riot. Once again, Jordan is a Sheridan utility player, playing a very bad dude who dies bloody.
Aside from "Special Ops: Lioness," Jordan has played at least one other Sheridan character who's still alive: Steve Hendon, a livestock agent who works with the Duttons on the long-running series "Yellowstone." Yes, that does mean that Jordan played two different characters in the "Yellowstone" universe, though bearded Cookie is unrecognizable compared to the more clean-cut cowboy he plays in the flagship series. Miraculously, Hendon hasn't taken a visit to the train station yet, although with "Yellowstone" set to return sometime soon for the second half of season 5, there's still time.
Even when Sheridan's scripts are iffy, Jordan's work is always great
While it's always fun to keep tabs on which filmmakers love to work with (and kill off) which actors again and again (see also: Devon Sawa dying in every season of "Chucky"), it's worth noting that Sheridan's works have become polarizing in recent years — for good reason. While titles like "Yellowstone" continue to rack up tons of views, several of Sheridan's works have been criticized as racist, and the writer has made headlines for, among other things, seemingly taking credit for the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. Even taken on their own, the deaths of Jordan's characters — killed by brutal Black gang members in one show, Native American warriors in another, and white government agent heroes in yet a third — embody the thin line between thoughtful storytelling and a stereotype-driven vision of America.
As controversial as Sheridan's own work may be, Jordan's is always great. If you want to see what he's up to when he's not getting KO-ed on screen in the Taylor Sheridan extended universe, check out "Veronica Mars," "The Endless," or "Certain Women." If you want to catch up on "1883," "Special Ops: Lioness," and "Mayor of Kingstown," you can find them all on Paramount+, while Peacock is the streaming home of "Yellowstone."