Josh Holloway’s character Roarke met a wild and unforgettable end in Season 4 of Yellowstone. After causing trouble for the Dutton family over two seasons, Roarke was killed off in a dramatic and surprising way — a rattlesnake bite to the face.
The scene shows Rip Wheeler (played by Cole Hauser) opening a cooler and releasing an angry snake onto Roarke. Within seconds, the snake strikes, biting Roarke’s face and killing him quickly. While the moment was shocking and memorable, some fans who know about snakebites pointed out that the death happened way too fast to be realistic.
Even Holloway agreed with them. In an interview, he said he talked with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan about this before filming. “I told him, ‘At least have the snake bite me on the jugular (neck) so it makes more sense,’” Holloway said. But Sheridan insisted the face bite looked better on camera. Holloway eventually gave in. “We argued about it,” he laughed, “but in the end, it looked great.”
According to health experts, rattlesnake bites rarely kill people in the U.S., and when they do, it usually takes several hours — not seconds. But for TV drama, speed and visuals often matter more than accuracy. The bite left two bloody marks on Roarke’s cheek and made for a powerful scene.
The team used real snakes for the filming, but when it came to the actual bite, they switched to a realistic prop. That scene was even filmed in reverse. Holloway had to pull the fake snake away from his face while pretending he had just been bitten — a strange thing to act out. “It felt silly at the time,” he said, “but once they flipped it in editing, it looked amazing.”
Despite the snake drama and fast death, Holloway loved being part of Yellowstone. In fact, he says it was the best job of his career. The scene was filmed near the beautiful Bitterroot River in Montana, right after COVID-19 restrictions began easing. Holloway stayed alone in a cozy cabin for nine days — fishing every day, grilling fresh trout every night, and soaking up the peaceful nature around him. “It was paradise,” he said. “I got paid to be there, and it was just perfect.”
And funny enough, in the scene where Roarke gets bitten, he’s actually fly fishing — just like Holloway had been doing in real life. “I had been fishing all week,” he said. “Then I showed up on set, practiced dying in my car for a bit, and we filmed the scene in a few hours.”
Now, fans can watch Holloway in a new role. He stars in Duster, a crime series on Max. He plays Jim Ellis, a getaway driver in the 1970s, who teams up with an FBI agent to take down a major crime boss. New episodes air every Thursday night.
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