“Yellowstone” Star Denim Richards Says He ‘Absolutely Did Not Watch’ Colby’s Death Scene: ‘It Was Definitely Hard’
The cowboy’s death in season 5B was described at the time as “gut-wrenching” by director Christina Voros
Credit: Paramount Network
NEED TO KNOW
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Yellowstone star Denim Richards’ character, Colby, died in one of the last episodes of the show’s fifth and final season in 2024
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At a cast panel during Fanboy Expo Knoxville on July 10, the actor reflected on the tragic onscreen death and shared why he didn’t watch the episode
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“You should just be happy that you have the opportunity to be a part of something much larger than yourself,” he said of his perspective on his character’s death
It’s been nearly two years, but Denim Richards’ feelings about his Yellowstone death are still raw.
During a panel conversation with Yellowstone costars Jen Landon, Jefferson White and Ian Bohen, Richards reflected on his heartbreaking onscreen death in season 5B.
“It was definitely hard,” he said at Fanboy Expo Knoxville in Florida on July 10. “I’m still thankful, but the ego part of one’s personality would have liked to have kept going.”
When the episode aired — Colby was trampled by a horse while helping Carter (Finn Little) in one of the final episodes of the series — the actor, 37, could not bring himself to watch it.
“I absolutely did not watch it in the window when the time came,” he confessed.
Denim Richards as Colby Mayfield in ‘Yellowstone’
Credit: Paramount Network
Pointing to something White had said earlier in the panel, Richards continued, “There’s very little that we as artists control. So you should just be happy that you have the opportunity to be a part of something much larger than yourself.”
When the episode aired in December 2024, Richards told Entertainment Weekly that he found his character’s tragic end “kind of poetic, because in season 3, Colby gets trampled by a horse multiple times in the river.”
“So maybe this was those horses’ ancestors coming back to get retribution. But more than anything, it was about as clean as you could possibly do a death,” he said.
Colby’s death was, in Richards’ eyes, a way that Taylor Sheridan was “emphasizing the realities of cowboy life” in the final season.
“We have this saying that everyone’s going to fall off a horse at some point in their life. It’s not if, it’s just when and how bad. That is not a phenomenon,” he said. “These things do happen, so I do think that there’s that element where I think it is about really wanting to emphasize that this is a reality.”
Jen Landon as Teeter and Denim Richards as Colby in ‘Yellowstone’ season 3
Credit: Cam McLeod/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
Director Christina Voros called the death “gut-wrenching” and a “freak accident” but echoed Richards’ point that it was representative of the real-life “risks” of being a cowboy.
“It’s a dangerous job, and this kind of thing happens, and it happens in a split-second. This death comes as a shock because it’s so simple, and it’s so grounded in the world in which all these characters work that it’s profoundly tragic,” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the time.
“The thing that I think is such a gut-punch about Colby’s death is that in a season where there are all these twists and turns and dark forces and giant narrative swings, Colby’s death is so powerful because it’s so simple,” she said.