Barry Corbin Reveals Cancer Surgery – Latest on ‘Yellowstone’ and ‘The Ranch’ Actor’s Condition

Yellowstone actor Barry Corbin recently underwent surgery to treat oral cancer, the veteran actor revealed in a new interview. Corbin, 82, was working on Tulsa King when he needed to take time off for the procedure. The real-life cowboy is known for his distinctive voice and played Four Sixes Ranch cowboy Ross in the Yellowstone Season 4 episode “Under a Blanket of Red.”

Corbin knew something was wrong when he discovered a “spot” on the inside of his cheek that would not go away, he told PEOPLE. Tests revealed it was cancer. “I already knew what it was. I hadn’t discussed it with anybody, but I knew,” he said.

After starring in an episode of Yellowstone, co-creator Taylor Sheridan cast Corbin in his next project, the Sylvester Stallone-starring Tulsa King. Corbin plays a character named Babe and appears in multiple episodes. The Northern Exposure star also has a role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and had a recurring role on The Ranch as Dale Rivers.

Corbin hoped to have surgery after finishing work on Tulsa King, but production of the show got behind schedule. His doctors at John Peter Smith in Ft. Worth, Texas said he could not delay the surgery any longer without risking further complications. Corbin took only two weeks off for the surgery before returning.

The actor was most concerned about losing his voice, as his doctors said it was possible his vocal cords would be impacted. “That would cause a big disruption to my business,” Corbin told PEOPLE. Corbin was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, which many are more familiar with as skin cancer. However, his was inside the mouth, which is “an entirely different beast,” his doctor, Dr. Jonathan Jelmini, told the magazine. “It’s much more aggressive when it’s involved in the mouth,” Jelmini explained. “And there are a lot of nerves that run through the tongue around where things need to be removed.”

Corbin was expecting that his doctors would need to replace his jawbone with a bone from his fibula. “Both my fibulas have been broken, so they’re not in very good shape either, so that kinda worried me,” he said. His wife, Jo Corbin, was also worried that her husband would lose his famous voice. They were worried the procedure would make it difficult for him to continue acting.

“He did have some fear that he would not look the same when he returned to work after the surgery. He says he put his trust in the make-up people to make him presentable,” Jo said. “And if that wasn’t possible, he thought he might be written off the show.” Corbin thought his Tulsa King character could easily be written off since the character has dementia.

“Barry definitely showed his grit post-operatively. He was ready to discharge from the hospital the morning after surgery,” Jelmini explained. “Every patient recovers a little differently, but he certainly had an accelerated recovery.” Jelmini added that although the treatment was successful, Corbin and others with this form of cancer became patients “for life.”

Although Corbin is not in the Yellowstone Season 5 premiere, he will still be seen on Paramount Network Sunday night. He is in the Tulsa King premiere, “Go West, Old Man,” which will air on the network after Yellowstone. The series then shifts to Paramount+ for the rest of its run.