Cast and Characters (Urban Cowboy) Urban Cowboy (1980)
Principal Cast
Bud Davis — John Travolta (in Urban Cowboy)
The Spur, Texas refinery worker who marries Sissy within three weeks of arriving in Houstonb1 b8 and spends the rest of the film trying to be a "real cowboy" — first by control, then by apology. Travolta was 25, post-Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978), and Urban Cowboy was the picture that defined his late-1970s-into-1980s transition (see Travolta's Career Arc 1977-1980). He learned the mechanical bull on a borrowed setup at his Santa Barbara ranch and is reportedly riding it himself in most of the film's shots.
Sissy — Debra Winger
The tough-minded woman who asks Bud "Are you a real cowboy?" the first night they meet,b6 marries him,b8 and refuses to be excluded from the bull.b11 b17 Urban Cowboy was Winger's breakout — she had been an episodic television actress with one film credit (Slumber Party '57, 1976) and a small part in French Postcards (1979); after Urban Cowboy she went directly to An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983) (see Debra Winger's Emergence). She rode the bull herself, working with the same coach Travolta used, and is the actor whose face the film is willing to hold the longest.
Wes Hightower — Scott Glenn (in Urban Cowboy)
The ex-con bull champion on parole from the Texas prison rodeo programb9 who hustles for action at Gilley's,b12 becomes Sissy's lover after the breakup, hits her in their trailer,b28 robs the Gilley's office safe, and is finally beaten by Bud in the back hallway.b39 Glenn was thirty-nine and four years out from his career-defining run in The Right Stuff (1983) and Silverado (1985); he had been working in supporting roles since Robert Altman's Nashville (1975), and Urban Cowboy was his first significant antagonist (see Wes Hightower as Ex-Con Romantic Rival).
Pam — Madolyn Smith
The wealthy oil-money woman who has "a thing about cowboys," picks Bud up in the Gilley's parking lot after the breakup, takes him uptown,b21 coaches him toward the rodeo trophy,b22 tears up Sissy's note,b26 and then — backstage at the rodeo — admits the note and releases Bud back to Sissy: "you don't love me, Bud. And I don't really love you. Not like that. So you shouldn't let her get away."b37 Smith was an Austin-born actress in her first major film role; Urban Cowboy was her introduction.
Uncle Bob Davis — Barry Corbin
Bud's uncle and the elder cowboy figure whose alternative reading of the role lands seventy minutes in. Bob brings Bud to Gilley's the first night,b3 gets him onto the refinery crew,b5 and — in the refinery yard the night of his fatal accident — names the post-midpoint approach aloud: "Sometimes even a cowboy's gotta swallow his pride and hold on to somebody he loves."b29 Bob is killed by a falling mudder at the rig within the same shift.b30 Corbin, an Oklahoma-bred character actor in one of his earliest film roles, would go on to No Country for Old Men (2007) and three decades of recurring television work.
Aunt Corene Davis — Brooke Alderson
Bud's aunt and Bob's wife, the Houston-household figure who hosts Bud,b2 signs off on the marriage, and — at her home before the rodeo — presses Bob's cowboy hat onto Bud's head with "He wanted you to have this and to wear it tonight at the rodeo, for good luck."b32 The hat-transfer makes the new approach inheritance.
Bridges built the film around two leads who hadn't yet carried a picture
When Urban Cowboy was being cast, John Travolta was the biggest movie star in America by box-office return per picture — Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978) had been enormous — but he had not yet had the disastrous run that would define the early 1980s. Debra Winger had not yet had a hit at all. James Bridges (in Urban Cowboy) cast a star against an unknown and trusted the unknown to hold the frame across from him. The trust paid off twice: Winger emerges from the picture as a major star, and the picture itself reads, forty years later, as Winger's coming-out as much as Travolta's transition.
The supporting bench is heavy with character actors who would become familiar over the next decade. Scott Glenn had been the man directors cast when they needed authority without bluster. Barry Corbin was at the start of a career as the older Texan with the soft delivery. Madolyn Smith was being introduced. The film's casting strategy was to put two stars against a wall of working actors who knew Texas — and the result is a picture that feels populated by the place rather than imported into it.
Supporting Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Cooper Huckabee | Marshall |
| Mickey Gilley | himself |
| Johnny Lee | himself |
| Charlie Daniels Band | themselves |
| Bonnie Raitt | herself |
| James Gammon | Steve Strange (Bob's rodeo friend) |
| Ben "Cooter" Collins | Jessie |
| Sherwood Cryer | himself |