What Has Hugh Dillon Been Doing Since Leaving Yellowstone?
Sheriff Donnie Haskell (Hugh Dillon) is among the faces to come and go across the years on "Yellowstone." Although introduced as a sometimes unwilling ally to John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and the Yellowstone Ranch, Haskell was ultimately shot and killed in "Yellowstone" Season 4 Episode 8 ("No Kindness for the Coward").
Plenty of famous faces are introduced and later dispatched on "Yellowstone," but Sheriff Haskell felt like a character with a chance of sticking around longer, holding a long history with John and a love for his home hidden beneath a few nagging regrets. Before appearing in more than a dozen episodes of "Yellowstone," Dillon collaborated with "Yellowstone" co-creator Taylor Sheridan on 2017's "Wind River" (per IMDb). Besides his acting work, Dillon is also known as the lead singer of the band Headstones. Dillon has songs that have appeared in everything from "Trailer Park Boys: The Movie" to the Jennifer Lynch-directed "Surveillance" (via IMDb).
Despite the fact that Sheriff Haskell was given the boot — and a bullet — on "Yellowstone," the collaboration between Sheridan and Dillon has continued in a surprising way. Dillon's music has also given him plenty to focus on beyond acting. Here's a look at what Hugh Dillon has been up to since leaving "Yellowstone."
Hugh Dillon co-created Mayor of Kingstown and released an album
Since leaving "Yellowstone," Hugh Dillon co-created "Mayor of Kingstown," another Paramount series overseen by Taylor Sheridan. Dillon is also an executive producer on the series and is part of the main cast as Ian Ferguson, a cop willing to cross the line to keep his city in line. Despite his badge, he's often taking orders from Jeremy Renner's Jeremy McLusky, an ex-con who now finds himself as a middle man between the law and the city's criminal underworlds, especially those conducted behind bars.
The world of "Mayor of Kingstown," in which an entire town is run on the economy of prisons, is pulled from what Dillon grew up around. He revealed while promoting the show's first season that he grew up in a town that was home to nine penitentiaries.
"You know, as a kid, my mom was a teacher, my friend's parents were prison guards, one was a warden, other friends were convicts, and it was, you know, in this perfectly cultivated civilized world, there's this brutality and these institutions. So, as a kid, I was fascinated with it, and I remember I'd drive by with my parents, and I'd see the guard tower, and you think at five and six 'oh that's Disneyland,' but it isn't, it's the polar opposite," the actor told Newsweek.
On top of juggling multiple hats on "Mayor of Kingstown," Dillon's band Headstones also released a new album in October 2022 (per Spill Magazine).