'Yellowstone' Fans Flood Underrated Star with Birthday Wishes

Saturday morning and into the afternoon, fans of Yellowstone delivered a unified message. They [...]

Saturday morning and into the afternoon, fans of Yellowstone delivered a unified message. They gathered together and sent birthday wishes to Forrie J. Smith, one of the actors on the Paramount Network show. Smith plays ranch hand Lloyd and makes the series more authentic.

The Yellowstone Twitter account posted a photo on Saturday that showed Smith on-set at the Dutton Ranch. The fans saw the longtime cowboy-turned-actor and began referring to him as an underrated cast member and one of the best parts of the show. They sent birthday wishes ahead of Season 4. The responses marked a major change from standard tweets considering that everyone wrote positive messages.

Smith may play a cowboy in Yellowstone, but this was not a major stretch. He grew up in Helena, Montana, and began planning to become a stunt man after falling off a horse at the age of 6. Two years later, he began competing in rodeo and then moved to bareback riding at the age of 11.

This love of rodeo was something that he learned from his parents. His dad was "winning checks until he was 52 in the RCA" while his mom was a barrel racer. Smith explained that he was raised in the back of a station wagon and that he did everything asked of him at rodeos over the years. He also learned several important lessons that helped him as he moved into the industry and began working as a stunt man.

"I use a lot of the things I learned from rodeo in the film industry — like breaking things down into steps, thinking positive and not being negative," Smith told Rodeo News in December 2019. "Thinking about what you did wrong and forgetting it; thinking about what you did right and building on it. Hurry up and wait — that's all learned from rodeo."

Smith started his career as a stunt man, working on films such as Desperado and Stagecoach. He began taking acting lessons and started adding to his abilities. Smith partnered these new skills with ones learned during his rodeo life and used them to build a career lasting more than 25 years. Now he is an integral part of the Yellowstone cast and will continue to partner with Cole Hauser and the other members of the crew during the slate of upcoming episodes.

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