Scott Glenn (Urban Cowboy) Urban Cowboy (1980)

Scott Glenn (born January 26, 1941, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) plays Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy (1980). He was thirty-nine during production.

Glenn was the working actor directors cast for unforced authority

Glenn served in the Marine Corps before deciding on acting, studied with George Morrison and at the Actors Studio in New York, and spent most of the 1970s in supporting roles in films including Robert Altman's Nashville (1975), Apocalypse Now (1979, uncredited), and James Bridges's Urban Cowboy (1980). He was the actor directors cast when they needed a man who could carry physical authority without performing it. Urban Cowboy was his first significant antagonist role.

"Scott Glenn doesn't act commanding. He just is. You put him in a room and the other actors stop messing around." — Jonathan Demme, Sight & Sound (1991)

Wes Hightower is the version of Bud who has fully committed to cowboy-as-costume

The structural function of Wes — the doubled cautionary instance — is the version of Bud who has gone all the way down the road Bud is on. Ex-con bull champion.b9 Hits Sissy in their trailer.b28 Robs the Gilley's office safe.b39 The film needs an actor who can carry that shadow without softening it, and Glenn does. Wes is never charming; he is never given the audience-flirting moments most romantic-rival roles get. He is hard, fast, and unsentimental.

"Jim wanted Wes to be the version of Bud that had run out of room. Not a villain, not a sneer — a man who's already made every mistake Bud is about to make. Scott understood that immediately. He played Wes as the future Bud is trying not to become." — James Bridges, American Film (1980)

The trailer scene where Wes hits Sissy is staged as the structural mirror of the breakup punch — the same domestic violence that ended Bud's marriage now in a different trailer with a different couple.b18 b28 Glenn plays it without escalation; the violence is part of the household.

The Right Stuff and Silverado came after

Urban Cowboy opened the door to Glenn's career-defining run. Personal Best (1982) for Robert Towne; The Right Stuff (1983) as Alan Shepard, the role that established his screen persona of competent reserve; Silverado (1985) as the gunfighter Emmett. By the time he played Captain Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October (1990), Glenn was the leathered authority you cast when the rank had to be felt without the actor having to play it.

"Scott Glenn has been the best supporting actor in American film for forty years. Nobody mentions it, because he doesn't make a fuss. That is what makes him great." — David Mamet, The New Yorker (2009)

Glenn has spoken in interviews about the Urban Cowboy shoot with affection — Houston was hot, Gilley's was loud, Travolta was professional, Winger was already a force. He was paid scale; he had a young family; the work was steady; that was enough.

Cross-Film Connections

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