Who Plays William Macon On Lanterns

"Lanterns" is DC's riskiest show yet, taking the titular space cops and placing them in a grounded crime thriller that plays out mostly in America's heartland. Thankfully, DC and HBO assembled a cast that's more than capable of pulling off such a trick. Even the supporting roles are played by some of the best in the game, as is the case with Garret Dillahunt's William Macon.

The father-in-law of Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald), Macon is an enigmatic, conspiracy theory-prone rancher who resides in Rushville, Nebraska. It's here that Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre's John Stewart carry out their hunt for the main villain of "Lanterns," the Manhunter. So far, Macon has kept his cards close to the chest. But he's clearly hiding something, and that thing is almost certainly the Manhunter in question. For now, he remains a mysterious quasi-villain, with fans left to wonder exactly what he's hiding. They might also be wondering who plays this handsome, hirsute rancher.

Well, Dillahunt has a long and impressive filmography that includes some of the most beloved and critically-acclaimed TV series of all time. He's also no stranger to Western roles. There might be some sort of alien involved in his "Lanterns" storyline, but Dillahunt has previously appeared in much more grounded revisionist Westerns, including two of the greatest modern examples of the genre. Here's everything you need to know about William Macon actor Garret Dillahunt.

Garret Dillahunt has been acting on screen since the early '90s, when he landed his first role on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live." The California native played the wonderfully-named Charlemagne Moody in seven episodes of the long-running soap, before landing a guest spot on one of the best network TV shows of all time, "NYPD Blue." Further guest spots on similarly lauded shows such as "The X-Files" followed, before Dillahunt made his film debut in the Chilean-American thriller "Last Call" in 1999. It was the first of several times that he would appear alongside the film's star, Peter Coyote.

Dillahunt's next biggest role was on Showtime drama series "Leap Years," where he played Gregory Paget in all 20 episodes of the show's one and only season. He also formed part of the main cast on the Norm Macdonald-led sitcom "A Minute with Stan Hooper." Once again, the show only lasted one season. But more successful projects were on the horizon.

In 2004 Dillahunt debuted as Jack McCall on "Deadwood." The Western drama remains one of the best TV shows of the 2000s, deconstructing the genre via a gritty tale of two Deadwood, South Dakota residents and their differing pursuits of prosperity on the frontier of 1870. Dillahunt played Jack McCall, killer of Keith Carradine's Wild Bill Hickok, in Season 1 of the series. He then returned in Season 2 to play an entirely different character, geologist Francis Wolcott. "Deadwood" began somewhat of a trend for the actor, who soon after appearing on the show was cast in two of the most important revisionist Westerns of the 2000s.

In 2006 "Deadwood" was canceled after just three seasons, but Garret Dillahunt was back on the frontier almost immediately. 2007 saw him appear in two of the best Westerns of the modern era when he played Wendell in "No Country for Old Men" and Ed Miller in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." These movies followed his 2005 debut as Steve Curtis on "ER," a role he played for three seasons of the hit medical drama.

More success in TV followed, with Dillahunt co-starring as Burt Chance on Fox's comedy "Raising Hope" between 2010 and 2014. It remains one of his best-known roles, as does John Dorie, whom Dillahunt played for 29 episodes across Season 4 to 6 of AMC's "Fear the Walking Dead." Viewers might also recognize him from his recurring role as Dr. Jody Kimball-Kinney on "The Mindy Project," or as part of the main cast of Prime Video's "Hand of God."

During this time, Dillahunt also re-teamed with Peter Coyote — the actor alongside whom he made his film debut back in 1999 — multiple times. They both appeared on the short-lived crime drama series "The Inside" between 2005 and 2006, as well as CBS's "The 4400." Coyote even had a role on "Deadwood." 

Throughout this time, though he was most successful on the small screen, Dillahunt continued to appear in movies, including "Where the Crawdads Sing," "Army of the Dead," and "12 Years a Slave." Throughout his almost four-decade career, Dillahunt has been a consistent presence in both TV and film. And depending one what happens with his character on "Lanterns," he could become just as consistent a presence in the DC Universe.