Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, parents Glynn, a schoolteacher, and Nelson, an outdoorsman and former Eagle Scout who worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Elliott bonded with his father, nicknamed Shorty, the most when they went fishing with his friends. “He hung out with a lot of trappers,” he recalls, climbing and riding horses with the men to their Sierra fishing places.
Nelson died of a heart attack when Elliott was 17 years old, just a few years before his son relocated to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
“I’d want for my dad to see this,” Elliott says of the show and his current life. “He died thinking I was a complete moron for aspiring to be an actor. ‘You had a snowball’s chance in hell in that place,’ Elliott adds, shaking his head.
Is Sam Elliott friends with Ashton Kutcher?
While Colt and Beau feud on the show, Kutcher and Elliott enjoy an easygoing connection that is similar to the interactions they claim they had with their real-life fathers.
