Five Country Stars Who Are Fine Actors: Lainey, Reba, McGraw

• Tim McGraw

  Tim has been making movies for years now, with credits that include the Oscar-winning movie The Blindside from 2009 to 2017’s The Shack and a 2010 movie called Country Strong starring Gwyneth Paltrow as a budding country music star. While he’s done many films, it’s his role in the 2021 Paramount Plus series 1883 opposite his wife Faith Hill that has critics raving for his emotional and stirring performance as Jame Dutton, the ancestor of Yellowstone main character John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner.

  Before the series aired, McGraw told us, “This is truly a dream job. Taylor (creator Taylor Sheridan) has found a way of storytelling that brilliantly creates these epic dramas and family sagas with so much depth and creativity. The Duttons are tremendous characters, and it’s so thrilling to be able to bring them to life.”

• Reba McEntire

  Reba, like Tim McGraw, has done a lot of acting; most notably, she starred in her own sitcom for the CW dubbed Reba, which lasted for six seasons. She most recently played in a lifetime TV movie called The Hammer, where she plays Kim Wheeler, an attorney who is appointed as a judge for Nevada’s 5th district after the former judge’s death. The country icon produced the movie and co-starred her real-life boyfriend Rex Linn and buddy Melissa Peterman. Reba has also starred in the ABC sitcom Malibu Country, which lasted for just one season, and has had various roles in movies like the cult classic Tremors (1990) and Barb + Star (2021), to name a few.

• Dolly Parton

  Dolly Parton began her movie career in 1980’s 9 to 5 playing opposite Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin after Fonda heard of the Parton’s songs (“Two Doors Down”) and thought she would be great in the role of an office worker with dreams of singing country music. That was just the beginning of Parton’s movie career, which cast her opposite movie stars like Burt Reynolds (Best Little Whorehouse In Texas) and Sylvester Stallone (Rhinestone). In 1989, she starred alongside Julia Roberts, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, and Shirley McClaine in Steel Magnolias. That movie won Robert a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in 1990.

  Dolly also produced and starred in her movies for TV for Lifetime and two films based on her song “Coat Of Many Colors” for NBC.

• George Strait

  The King of Country Music, made his acting debut playing country star Dusty Chandler in the movie Pure Country, which premiered in October of 1992, and he did great on screen.

  According to Rolling Stone, even though he ended up enjoying the role, it was said Strait was nervous about a few things. Namely, he was not at all a fan of the movie’s title. He believed that “Pure Country” made it sound like the movie was all about country. He thought it was much more than that and asked the studio to consider changing the name. They did not.

  George had said that he feared starring in a movie would hinder his career as a recording artist. However, this was clearly not the case since Strait has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

• Lainey Wilson

  Lainey has one acting credit to her name to date: her role as Abby on TV’s Yellowstone, which has helped catapult her to country music superstardom. Wilson told USA Today for her first acting role, “I didn’t really know what I was doing, but you go in there head-first. I was going to give people their money’s worth.” She told her mom and dad,”‘You might not want to watch this show.’ I don’t want to be on their prayer list.”

  Lainey also said that the show’s producer, Taylor Sheridan, wanted her to be “pretty much myself.” She said that was a “dream come true.” Before she did the role, Sheridan only told her that she would play a musician who would fall in love with one of the boys. She noted, “He didn’t even tell me which one.”