AVC: There are probably a lot of answers to that question when it comes to Barlow Connally. I love him. So they started doing things like—we would talk incessantly about how we’re running out of food, and then by the end of the episode there’d be a block party to pick up people’s spirits. He is known as "Mac" to his family and friends. Something might be gaining on you.”. When Longmire tells Barlow Connolly (Gerald McRaney) that he’s convinced Branch was murdered, he feels he’s found a kindred spirit. GM: Well, it’s interesting: That actually sort of helped me. AVC: Growing up with cowboys began your interest in movies, and then you ended up appearing on the definitive cowboy series, and on three separate occasions, no less. [Laughs.] AVM: That’s actually one of my favorite recent guilty-pleasure movies. Of course, Longmire wants to believe the worst of Nighthorse and is easily steered by Barlow. And it had no bearing in reality whatsoever and was… really not a very pleasant experience. AVC: Simon & Simon was your first time as a series regular, but you’d certainly done a ton of guest roles by that point. At all. Come on. GM: Well, it was a great school for me. [Laughs.] But it was an episode that was written by Nick Corea, who was a writer-producer on that show. ... Gerald McRaney. And it’s what’s fun for me. Simon & Simon was a great, great launching pad for everything I’ve done since. We had just met, we were introduced, and we hugged each other instead of shaking hands. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) GM: Uh, yeah. Longmire averaged 3.5 million this season (almost 3.7 for the finale); a bit off from S3 (3.7). GM: Never. The actor: Gerald McRaney started his acting career in the late ’60s and kept so busy throughout the ’70s that it seemed like he was in every hour-long drama on the primetime schedule. Sign in to customize your TV listings. Longmire is an American modern Western crime drama television series that premiered on June 3, 2012 on the A&E network, developed by John Coveny and Hunt Baldwin. So we went into his trailer to listen to that album, and when I came out of the trailer, I wanted to eat every potato chip in that county just from breathing the air. Oh, also on Simon & Simon, in 1984, when the Summer Olympics were going to be in L.A., Phil decided it would just be a logistical nightmare trying to shoot in competition with all the traffic that would be going on around the Olympics. And since he had an apartment in Paris, it was decided, “Let’s go shoot there!” So he wrote—or had written—a two-hour episode of Simon & Simon, and we went to Paris for a month and shot. What a great guy to work with. And their line producer, Pat McKee, is a guy who started out as a trainee on Simon & Simon in the old days, so there’s an association with a couple of people on that show. The oil fields allowed me to be an actor, quite frankly. [Laughs.] [Laughs.] Get me on that set!”, But then the dates conflicted. Things like that. GM: Well, I’m glad. The series is based on the Walt Longmire Mysteries series of novels by Craig Johnson. To just sit and have coffee with that man and have conversation is worth anything you do. You can say to your wife, “I’ll be home at 8 p.m. this evening, let’s have dinner together,” which you can’t do with a movie or an hour-long TV show. GM: Yeah, later that same year, I think, she came over and did an episode of Simon & Simon. Writing, acting, singing… I don’t care what it is. I started to do it, and then at Ole Miss, where I went to college, I was in a lot of the productions the first year. [Laughs.]. And you can actually plan a life around that schedule! McRaney's recent credits include House of Cards, Southland, Deadwood and Longmire. And he loved making movies, television shows… Whatever it was, he liked doing it. It was going to be post-apocalyptic. On the show, he is … I tell people all the time, if you could make a good living at it, I’d still be doing rep, because that’s where all the fun is. I didn’t quite know what was going to be required of the role when I got it, but Barlow took some twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting. From what I’ve read, there’s apparently an LSD freak-out after someone spikes the ice cream. Welcome aboard.” Well, shit! GM: Well, that was fascinating because of the director. It’s just in him. I agreed to do Justified just as long as he agreed not to grab my beard. And playing the role was fascinating. I’m back to doing what I started out doing. And at the same time, I was doing those little low-budget films and a little piecemeal work in various and sundry other projects. His parents were Clyde and Edna McRaney in Collins, Mississippi, United States. Gerald McRaney and Robert Taylor in Longmire (2012) People Gerald McRaney, Robert Taylor. [Laughs.] I had promised my sister that I would go and be with her while my brother-in-law went through open-heart surgery in Virginia, and the dates conflicted, and I had to turn it down. I don’t know why they did, but… [Laughs.] This is terrific!” And it was done. McRaney holds the distinction of being the last guest star to meet "Matt Dillon" in a gunfight on Gunsmoke (1955) - in the episode, Gunsmoke: Hard Labor (1975), first broadcast on February 24, 1975 (he lost). AVC: So have you heard any rumblings about the continuation of the show, either a movie or another season? It’s good as an actor to have something that scares you a little from time to time. [Laughs.] We had to keep putting off all the scenes that were shot at the mansion because every time we would schedule that day, it would be raining on that side of the island, so… “Okay, I guess it’s time to go swimming in the ocean again. So I did. So that was pretty great. We can do that.” [Laughs.] Luckily for all of us, she was right, as the series continues Friday, March 16. If you look at them, even designers, they’re not always dressed to the nines. AVC: Was it weird working with Jameson in that capacity, as opposed to the brotherly love of Simon & Simon? [Laughs.]. When I got the last scene of last season—not this season, but the one before—it was, like, “Oh boy, this is bizarre…” But it was an interesting role, which I’d much rather play than something that’s bland and ordinary and easy to figure out. And Wilford, without even thinking about it, just changed everything and did the scene, and it was, like, “Oh! I called my wife after the whole fitting was over, which took hours and hours and hours, and I told her, “I think they just spent more money on the wardrobe than they’re ever going to pay me on this thing.” I mean, they must’ve spent over $100K on my wardrobe… and do you really have to spend that kind of money on a skinny bald guy? The last episode of the 20th season. GM: Oh, I think he was influenced by any number of people, but I think primarily Buffett. In those days, that was as beneficial as anything else I was doing, so I went ahead and did those things. And I asked to be let out of it. It was, like, “Who the hell do I have to pay for this?” [Laughs.] Country artist Jennifer Nettles, Longmire's Gerald McRaney and NYPD Blue alum Ricky Schroder have joined the cast of NBC's upcoming original … Longmire (TV Series 2012–2017) Gerald McRaney as Barlow Connally The network didn’t even want to hear about me, but they had tested everybody else in creation for the role opposite Jameson, who already had his role. GM: Oh, God, I don’t know if I’ll remember it! And I’ve been having fun the last 10 to 15 years, where it’s been like that. There just wasn’t time, because they started filming the next week! I’m sure! Instead of being, “Let’s make this the best show we can make about this subject,” it was, “Yeah, but are people going to tune in in big numbers to watch this?” As it turned out, they didn’t tune in in big numbers anyway. They had to have somebody. Summary, etc. But there it was for me to learn. You know, I’m just a day player, but that was the reception I got! With Barlow, it’d be a lot easier to figure out the people he didn’t piss off. If you give up the fantasy life, I’m out of business… and who the hell wants that? But the producer of it and the guy who had written it, Phil DeGuere, when he had a show called Pirate’s Key [the TV movie that served as the pilot Simon & Simon] he remembered me. He’s incredibly intelligent and has his own sometimes-bizarre take on life, but there’s this essential truth to Milch. But it gave me an opportunity to direct and it gave me an opportunity to write, and of course when Major Dad came around, I was one of the executive producers on that show. Longmire is a crime drama series that premiered on A&E Network on June 3, 2012, before … You go in, you go to work, you have a read-through like proper actors, and then the writers go back and they change things because it didn’t quite sound the way that they expected to coming out of real mouths. To have an acting partner of that kind of immense talent and to be able to go one-on-one with him, it’s like a tennis player playing a great opponent or a football player being a receiver to a great quarterback. But I have had the most fascinating career, particularly this latter part of it. GM: No, they came looking for me specifically. And that was a great joy for me, because my dad and I—and this is going way back—would listen to Gunsmoke on the radio, and then we were big fans of it when it came on TV, so to wind up with a role on that, strapping on the six-guns and going out on Dodge Street… That was great. The writing on the show is fantastic, the people who do the show are fantastic, all the directors were incredible, and one of the great things about doing something for Netflix is nobody gives a damn about numbers. It’s a very civilized way of being an actor. About a month later, my agent called me to tell me that Fran Bascom, a casting director who had been helpful to me when I first came out here, wanted to know if I’d be interested in doing a guest role on a sitcom she was casting. I just didn’t know if you’d gotten any sort of advance warning. AVC: And did he make good on that agreement? I was very excited about Jericho in the beginning of it because it was going to be dealing with the after-effects of a nuclear war. I love her dearly, and Beverly Archer, Jon Cypher, Matt Mulhern, and all the kids on the show were just terrific. Gerald Lee McRaney (born August 19, 1947) is an American television and movie actor. They stole that and put it in the episode. What am I getting myself into?” And then he wound up just being this great guy who I still hang out with. Once you got into a couple of those, you were pretty much going to do them all… and I think I pretty much did do them all at one point or another. ", McRaney holds the distinction of being the last guest star to meet "Matt Dillon" in a gunfight on, Filthy Rich Saves Its Sickest Revelation for Last in Fiery Series Finale — Grade It, Filthy Rich: Fox Previews the Cancelled TV Show's Finale, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, Emmys 2018 — Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story, The F.B.I. Not so much creatively on that one, although it was a wonderful creative experience, and Shanna Reed was just a joy. GM: Oh, well, on that one… I think you might be able to appreciate this one: I’d get so fascinated watching [Robert] Duvall work, I forgot it was my turn to talk! And I don’t know why that was, other than I’ve always found it fascinating that good writing tends to go in my brain and bad writing refuses to go there. That’s all anybody on that show cares about. GM: Yes, and he was one of our first ADs on the show. Longmire is produced by The Shephard/Robin Company in association with Warner Horizon Television. GM: Yeah! I’ve been so lucky in my career with the variety of roles that I’ve played, and I like doing all of it, but… there’s something so civilized about doing a sitcom. And it’s fascinating, because I had met her—briefly—at the Publicist Guild Awards luncheon. And I loved the sort of philosophy he had about war crimes: “All wars are crimes.” I’ve met several people who were at that level in the military, and they all have this sort of thing in common that nobody has ever stated in exactly these words, but their job ultimately is to try and piece things back together as best they can when everybody else has screwed things beyond all recognition. In the third season, he said, “Can you do three more?” “Yeah, sure, fine.” And it was three more again and again and again until I was in every episode of the third season! AVC: Your ’70s output is a significant amount of ground to cover, but are there any of those guest appearances during that era that particularly stand out for you? GM: Well, it wasn’t explained in exactly those words, but, yeah, that sort of tone was explained to me up front. AVC: Was there a particular point when you realized that it had grown into something beyond just that arc? And he has wonderful instincts. I really liked it. 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