Two things: I am sure you were tempted and I wish you had mentioned Brokeback Mountain. AND I also wish you had referenced Black cowboys, for that is most certainly part of this story, which is so often ignored at our peril. That said great story. Sam Elliott lost a shitton of fans over that interview. I am one of them. I am tired of Hollow-wood blowhards without the sense god gave a goose. As a long-time cowgirl, fifty years living in the West, he doesn't know shit. The immense tenderness in the movie Lonesome Dove that was most beautifully expressed throughout, especially when Gus dies, is likely far more true than anything Sam Elliott ever played. Loved his voice, but I never was a swooner over him. And now I wouldn't toss the manure from my stables' stalls on the man. He's already too full of shit.