Chance Gilliland never expected to be a cowboy or an actor, especially for the Yellowstone series.
Chance and his brother Colten first learned how to ride horses from their parents, George and Julie, in their hometown of Bonne Terre. After developing a passion for riding, Chance moved to California where he worked at a nonprofit that saves wild horses.
“Growing up, even though I loved horses, my brother and dad were like the real cowboys. I was more into motorcycles and surfing,” Chance says. “Now it’s come full circle, and I’ve gone full cowboy and come back to my roots.”
But tragedy struck in 2019 when Chance was seriously injured in a riding accident at his parents’ ranch and needed a spinal fusion. After recovering, Chance worked at a ranch in Wyoming where he eased back into riding on a paint horse named Toby.
Chance and Toby were western wear internet influencers when a casting crew saw them online and reached out. Chance then landed his first acting job as a cowboy in a mini-series called 1883, which is a spin-off of the popular western show Yellowstone. The series takes place after the Civil War and details the lives of the Dutton family as they join a wagon train toward Oregon. It also shows how the Yellowstone Ranch in Yellowstone came to be.
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Since then, Chance has appeared as a cowboy in Yellowstone, Season 5; in 1923, another spin-off series of Yellowstone; and as a rider and background actor in Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1, a Kevin Costner film.
“The resurgence of western shows and movies has impacted my life,” Chance says. “Someone from Bonne Terre doesn’t think they can go to Hollywood and be a stunt guy in the movies.”
Life has gone back to the beginning for Chance, who is named after John Wayne’s character John T. Chance in the 1959 western film Rio Bravo.
Photos by Julie Gilliland
This article was originally published in the May 2025 edition of Missouri Life.
