‘Justified’s Timothy Olyphant Wasn’t Actually the First Actor To Play Raylan Givens Onscreen

Certain characters on film and TV are played so well that it becomes impossible to imagine them in another actor’s skin. Such is the case with Timothy Olyphant‘s Raylan Givens, the lead of the 2010s FX series Justified. Olyphant gives a magnetic performance of someone you couldn’t help but watch to see what he’d do next — and fans ended up staying for six very entertaining seasons, as well as a sequel series, Justified: City Primeval, in 2023. But Olyphant wasn’t the first person to play Raylan Givens on TV, actually, and Justified wasn’t the character’s first appearance, either. In 1997, a TV movie adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel saw another actor playing the U.S. marshal in a completely different way.

James LeGros Played Raylan Givens in an Adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s ‘Pronto’

Image via Showtime

Elmore Leonard’s work has been adapted for the screen many times, with Justified one of the most notable examples; however, the FX series isn’t technically Raylan Givens’ TV debut. The character first shows up in an adaptation of Pronto, which marks Raylan’s first appearance in an Elmore Leonard novel. The story puts three characters on a collision course: Miami bookmaker Harry Arno (Peter Falk), his girlfriend, Joyce Patton (Glenne Headly), and Raylan. As Arno evades arrest, he then becomes the target of an international manhunt, with both Raylan, Joyce, and a whole mobster army in pursuit.

Pronto‘s Raylan is very different from the one we come to know in Justified. Instead of a brooding man who seems like he’s about to blow up any time (just give him a reason), he’s more of a supporting player in Pronto‘s chaotic story, so there isn’t as much room for him to shine. The DNA is all there, including his cowboy hat, dry humor, and stubborn adherence to his own sense of justice, but the movie doesn’t really do Raylan’s character any favors, as it clearly doesn’t have the scale or ambition to be anything more than a simple made-for-cable adaptation of a famous writer’s work.

Taking Pronto to television probably seemed like a no-brainer for television executives at that time. Leonard’s stories already carried some weight in Hollywood, but they peaked in the 1990s with Get Shorty in 1995, Jackie Brown in 1997, and Out of Sight in 1998, so there was a particularly high demand for them. Unfortunately, Pronto doesn’t live up to the same standard as those three and has become mostly a footnote in the history of Justified, but it does deserve some recognition for taking Raylan Givens to TV for the first time and becoming what is actually just the first of LeGros’ ties to the character.

James LeGros’ Raylan Givens May Not Be as Striking as Timothy Olyphant’s, but He Has His Charm

Pronto may not be as good a watch as Justified, but it’s still worth checking out, if only to compare the two versions of Raylan Givens. LeGros’ version is a more “standard” lawman and someone way easier to get along with, versus Olyphant’s Raylan, who feels like he is always containing a devastating anger inside himself. LeGros’ Raylan has no problem with shooting before asking questions, too, but lacks the edge Olyphant perfected. His characterization is pretty generic, lacking the swagger as well as the correct Stetson. Reportedly, Leonard himself never seemed too fond of the movie or the actor’s portrayal of Raylan, either.

What’s interesting is that there are moments from Raylan’s story in Pronto that have actually been worked into Justified, making it possible to pinpoint how both portrayals differ. The opening scene of Justified, when Raylan shoots mobster Tommy Bucks (Peter Greene) at a party in Miami, the story of how he lost an arrest because he went to get ice cream next door, and the usual stand-offs where he is outnumbered, for example, all have counterparts in Pronto.

The differences between LeGros’ and Olyphant’s portrayals mostly show how good Leonard’s source material is and why its adaptations usually work so well; his characters are never rigidly defined, leaving a lot of room for actors to come in and build them as their own. LeGros’ looseness fits the 90s TV-movie format better than Olyphant’s would, and, with Raylan’s character not being front and center like he is in Justified, it also makes no sense for him to be anything more than what Pronto required. The stoic Kentucky lawman belongs in a series and would hardly be a good fit anywhere else.

James LeGros Later Reunited With Raylan Givens as a Villain on ‘Justified’

For most actors, playing a character like Raylan Givens outside Justified would be a trivia footnote, but, for James LeGros, Pronto turned out to be the beginning of an arc that later came full circle. Almost 15 years later, the actor returned to Leonard’s world in a much different capacity, playing small-time crook Wade Messer in Seasons 2, 3, and 5 of Justified. The irony is easy to miss, but for anyone who knows about Pronto, it’s a quietly brilliant casting choice to have someone who once played Raylan now facing off with the character.

In Justified, Messer is a petty criminal, informant, and occasional errand boy, the kind of person who thinks he can take advantage of both sides of a conflict, only to end up crushed between them. Messer is nervous, opportunistic, and always in over his head, making him an easier prey for Raylan than he would think. There is nothing of LeGros’ Raylan in Messer, which is a testament to how good an actor LeGros is, and how he could have done a good job portraying Raylan, too, if given the appropriate room. LeGros’ performance in Justified actually gives his work in Pronto a whole new dimension and suddenly makes it a more interesting inside joke for both fans of the series and Leonard’s work.

While Pronto doesn’t carry the same weight or have the same cultural impact that Justified did, LeGros’ portrayal isn’t something that fans of the series shouldn’t sleep on. It adds some perspective on the character, making it feel more like the Justified version is not really an antithesis, but an evolution of what the industry and the audience realized Raylan could be.

Justified is available to stream on Hulu.