The Dazed And Confused Character You Likely Forgot Yellowstone's Cole Hauser Played

Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" is a miracle of a movie. Set on the last day of school in an unnamed Texas town (it's Austin), the film perfectly captures the euphoria of an uncharted summer when anything can happen. For most of Linklater's characters, this is the three-month prelude to a pivotal school year. For the seniors-to-be, it'll either be a make-or-break season of high school football or the arrival of an approval/rejection letter from the various colleges to which they've applied. For the freshman making the leap from junior high, this is when grades and sports really start to matter; they'll also be entering a social pressure cooker where making the right friends will matter entirely too much.

None of this matters on the last day of school. This is the first night of freedom, which, in the film, initially seems to be building to a raging house party in the suburbs. When these plans go awry, they shift gears to a beer bust at the moon tower, where brews will be slammed, joints will be toked, a fight will break out, and more than a few folks will hook up. Linklater nails the vibe, which is a testament to his observational genius, but "Dazed and Confused" wouldn't be the classic it is today without the casting genius of Don Phillips.

Just as he did for Amy Heckerling's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," Phillips found the perfect young actor for every role. While Linklater's film is best known for launching the "alright, alright, alright" career of Matthew McConaughey, every performer in the film brings a deep spiritual integrity to their role. This includes Cole Hauser, who, as a football teammate of Jason London's star quarterback Randall "Pink" Floyd, is a long way off from Rip Wheeler on "Yellowstone."

As the tough, take-charge Rip Wheeler, Cole Hauser was a "Yellowstone" fan favorite from the first season onward. Whereas his actor father, Wings Hauser, specialized in psychopaths and all-around wildmen, Cole's got some mystery to him. And while he proved he could play a hissable villain in "2 Fast 2 Furious," Rip brought out the leading man in Hauser.

I can't say that I saw this career turn coming in "Dazed and Confused." As the frizzy-haired Benny O'Donnell, he occupies the middle ground between Sasha Jenson's gridiron goof Don Dawson and London's thoughtful jock Floyd. He gets off on the hazing ritual of paddling freshmen, but has his sights trained on drinking himself into oblivion. And in one of the film's most memorable shots, we see him reach the point of no return as he rises from his seat in the bed of a pickup truck. Benny stands for a brief moment, realizes this is a horrible idea, and sits back down where his beer is waiting for him.

We've all been there. Well, I've been there, and that's the moment I became a Cole Hauser fan for life. And with "Dutton Ranch" on the way, it's a good time for Hauser-ites the world over.