Timothy Olyphant's life from marriage to college sweetheart to connection to one of America's richest families

Actor Timothy Olyphant has had a fascinating life even before he landed star-making roles in Deadwood and Justified.

He’s since scored appearances in major projects such as The Mandalorian, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Daisy Jones & the Six in recent years.

However, his latest performance, in Noah Hawley’s terrifying prelude to the Alien franchise, Alien: Earth, could be his most impressive yet.

Olyphant portrays another of the series’ infamously creepy androids, Kirsh, alongside a stellar cast including rising star Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis and Babou Ceesay.

But what do we know about the actor’s life away from the screens? Read on to discover more.

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Birth and connection to mega-rich family

Olyphant, 57, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii though he and his family moved to Modesto, California when he was two.

The star recently revealed he’s a descendant of the wealthy Vanderbilt family of New York, and thus also related to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

When probed about the connection by the Hollywood Reporter, he quipped: “You're goddamn right I am, and somebody owes me money."

His fourth great-grandfather on his father’s side was business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt.

However, Olyphant doesn’t seem to have inherited much from the family connection and admits he hasn’t met his cousin, Cooper.

"It's on my to-do list to head to upstate New York and see if I can get the keys to the house," he added.

"I've never met Anderson. I assume that's just because I keep missing the family reunions due to work and the kids. But now that I'm an empty-nester, I hope we'll be having drinks soon."

Marriage to college sweetheart

Olyphant not only married his college girlfriend, Alexis Knief, in 1991, but they’ve stayed together ever since for over three decades.

They have also welcomed three children over the years, including daughter Vivian who portrayed his Justified character Raylan Givens’s daughter Willa in the sequel miniseries Justified: City Primeval.

Alexis has supported her husband’s career by raising their family away from the spotlight.

Sharing the secret to their romance’s longevity, Olyphant shared to Women’s Health in 2011: “You have to be with the right person, and you both have to be willing to do the work, day in and day out, to make it happen."

He has also credited her for keeping him grounded and frequently mentions her sharp sense of humour in interviews.

Other careers

Before finding his feet as an actor, Olyphant had a couple of very different careers that could come as a surprise to some fans.

After swimming competitively throughout his childhood, he worked as a swimming coach at Irvine Novaquatics.

However, he soon decided to move to New York to explore other possibilities, including a brief stint as a stand-up comedian.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long as his off-the-wall material didn’t connect with the crowd and he struggled with comics’ “awful” schedules.

“I’d always heard that you’re just going to bomb for a while,” he told Marc Maron on the WTF podcast.

“I felt like I had a couple of shows right out of the gate where I was like, ‘This is easy. This is great.’ And then the bombing started.”

Olyphant has also explored his passion for sport outside of his acting career. From 2006 to 2008, he phone into Joe Escalante's morning radio show in Los Angeles with unconventional sports reports. Director David Lynch was the station's weatherman.

He has also competed in a number of celebrity tennis tournaments.

Alien: Earth continues Wednesdays on Disney+.