Outstanding in Their Field: Yellowstone’s 20 Best Characters of All Time, Ranked [PHOTOS] (2024)

Charlie Mason

Thursday, February 22nd, 2024

Credit: Paramount Network screenshot (3), Paramount Network

Bonus Entry: Summer Higgins
We’ll raise a glass of wheatgrass to the passionate protester who put the spring back in John’s step in Season 4. But we won’t gulp it down until we find out whether she has what it takes to coexist with his hyper-protective daughter, Beth.
20. Monica Dutton
We understand that she’s been through a lot. Like, between son Tate’s kidnapping and the assaunt on the ranch,a lot a lot. But does Kayce’s better half have to be a Debbie Downer all the time?
19. Teeter
As the pink-haired, marble-mouthed wrangler might inimitably put it, “Thisheer charcter’s a [bleepin’] hoot’nitdoesn’ matternone iffin’syaunderstand ’er.” Got all that, or ya want it with subtitles?
18. Malcolm Beck
Too late, the diabolical businessman learned that Duttons and bulls are basically one and the same. “How’s that?” you ask. If you mess with either one, you’re gonna get the horns. (And no, not even a schmancy belt buckle can protect you.)
17. Mia
The spirited barrel racer who punched Jimmy’s V card in a hospital bed probably would rank higher on this list if we weren’t so ticked at her for putting him in that bed for a second time!
16. Caroline Warner
The soft-spoken Market Equities’ bigwig had us eating out of the palm of her hand from the moment she explained to weaselly lackey Ellis in Season 4 that she was never early nor late; his time adjusted to accommodate hers. #boss
15. Willa Hayes
You know this Market Equities power player had to have been a formidable foe for Beth if she managed to leave the show with no more harm done than a disgraced reputation. And, miracle of miracles, she did.
14. Walker
The Yellowstone’s most reluctant hand doesn’t go looking for trouble, it just has a way of…Aw, who are we kidding? The guitar-strumming Casanova totally goes looking for trouble, preferably the kind with curves.
13. Mo
We don’t know the last name of Rainwater’s right-hand man, but based on his history of kicking ass and taking names we’re gonna guessthat it’s something along the lines Doesn’t Put Up With Any BS.
12. Lloyd Pierce
He may be as old as the dirt in which he’ll someday be buried, but make no mistake: The Yellowstone’s oldest hand can still throw down with the best of ’em. Just ask Walker.
11. Carter
It’s no wonder this scrappy youngster made such an impression on Beth: From the get-go, he was, in essence, a Mini-Me of her rough-hewn honey, Rip. Hell, Carter even pissed ’er off and lived to tell the tale!
10. Lynelle Perry
If not the smartest person in the room, one of ’em — always. The savvy politician has a knack for looking at the big picture — not to mention a smile that has always made her irresistible to sometime lover John.
9. Garrett Randall
Ack! Brain force field up! Why? Because so adept at playing mind games is Jamie’s biological father that we can wind up feeling all twisted inside after nothing more than watching a scene that he’s in.
8. Roarke Morris
Not since J.R. Ewing was there a villain who delighted in his own cunning quite as much as the Market Equities mover and shaker that Beth hilariously described as the long-lost love child of Fabio and Lucille Ball.
7. Jimmy Hurdstrom
Bless his heart, the Yellowstone outcast has as much trouble staying in the saddle as we do not falling off the edge of our seats while watching the show. But credit where it’s due: He’s got the spirit of any three cowboys combined.
6. Thomas Rainwater
Make no mistake: The chief of the Broken Rock Reservation wants for his people what is rightfully theirs. However, he refuses to just take it, instead traveling the high road in hopes of taking it with honor.
5. Jamie Dutton
John’s adopted son gets so much hate that it’s easy to feel sorry for him. But then he goes and does something to remind you of what an opportunistic SOB he is, and you regret softening toward him for even an instant.
4. Kayce Dutton
The youngest of John’s heirs is the kinda brute that you want on your side in a brawl and the kinda sweetheart that you want on your side in life. Even when he’s 100-percent wrong, he’s always trying to do right.
3. John Dutton
We didn’t blame young Carter a bit when he announced, “I wanna be him [when I grow up].” The Dutton family’s patriarch is the kinda complicated guy who can do bad, bad things and still leave you feeling like he’s a good guy.
2. Beth Dutton
We’re likelier to master trigonometry than we are to figure out John’s badass daughter, a metaphorical tornado who blows away everyone in her path — us included.
1. Rip Wheeler
Beth gets all the best lines, it’s true. But we couldn’t keep the top spot from the tough-as-leather ranch foreman who can both shed tears after having to beat up a friend and kill a guy with a rattlesnake in an ice chest.