‘Yellowstone’ Actor Rudy Ramos Returns to ‘Marshals’ as Career ‘Bookend’ After 50 Years on Screen
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Marshals Season 1 Episode 6.]
Yellowstone fans who watched episode 6 of CBS’s new spinoff series, Marshals, saw a familiar face on the screen.
Felix Long makes an unexpected appearance in ‘Marshals’
Rudy Ramos made an unexpected return as Felix Long in the show’s April 5 episode. He was seen during Monica’s memorial service. It marked his debut in the spinoff after 11 appearances as Monica’s grandfather Felix Long on Yellowstone.
In the emotional scene, Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) and his son Tate (Brecken Merrill) return to the reservation. They’re there to honor Monica (Kelsey Asbille), who died of cancer in between the events of the Yellowstone series finale and the Marshals series premiere. Felix joined them for the ceremony, where Kayce handed over his late wife’s necklace to their son.
For Ramos, the Marshals cameo was a chance to revisit his Yellowstone role, which he’s previously described as a “bookend” to his long career as an actor.
Ramos got his start in Hollywood in the final season of the Western series The High Chapparal, which aired in 1971. He played Wind, as a half-white, half-Pawnee cowhand who often acted as a go-between for the Native Americans and the Arizona ranchers. In some ways, the role prefigured his character on Yellowstone, a Native American elder and rancher on the Broken Rock Reservation.
“Those characters are kind of bookends to my career,” Ramos told INSP in a 2022 interview.
Rudy Ramos talks similarities between ‘The High Chaparral’ and ‘Yellowstone’
Ramos’ casting in The High Chapparal was a stroke of luck. “I was training in a scene- study class, and I accidentally got an audition,” he recalled.
“I was right for the part because I was very much like the character,” he continued. “Wind was a half-breed Indian, and I’m half-breed; half Mashika, a band of the Aztecas, and half Mexican. He was asked to leave the tribe. I wasn’t asked to leave Oklahoma, but it was in my best interest that I did.”
NBC canceled The High Chapparal not long after Ramos joined the show. But he went on to a productive career as an actor. He had a role in the TV movie Helter Skelter and appeared in episodes of Hawaii Five-0 and MacGyver. In the late ‘80s, he had a recurring role in the cop drama Hunter. In 2018, he joined the Yellowstone cast.
Initially, Ramos didn’t expect that he’d get the Felix Long part. He thought producers would hire Wes Studi or Graham Greene, other prominent Native actors. But he landed the role, bringing his career full circle.
“I started out on the world stage,” he said, referring to the international success of The High Chapparal. “And now, coming down the home stretch of a long and really enjoyable career, I’m back on the world stage again.”
“There’s a lot of similarities with Yellowstone and High Chaparral,” Ramos said, going to explain why the latter was “so popular.”
“It was the storyline, the writing, and then the people that did the roles, and brought those words to life,” he said. “It happened with Chaparral, and happened with Yellowstone, right out of the gate.”
Marshals airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Episodes also stream on Paramount+.
