Episode 13 of Fear the Walking Dead introduced John Dorie Sr. (Keith Carradine).
Not only was this a surprise to John Jr.’s (Grant Dillahunt) wife, June (Jenna Elfman), but John Sr. was pertinent to moving the story forward.
He has information relating to Teddy (John Glover), who heads the new antagonist group that lives at an underground location called the Holding.
Fans of HBOs’ Deadwood would have noticed the familiar face in Sunday night’s episode. Keith Carradine also starred in the HBO series.
Dillahunt also appeared in Deadwood at the same time as Carradine.
Keith Carradine starred in Deadwood
As pointed out by Entertainment Weekly, Keith Carradine featured in several episodes of Deadwood as Wild Bill Hickok.
Garret Dillahunt starred in the series as two characters, Jack McCall in 2004 and Francis Wolcott in 2005.
While Carradine’s character could be short-lived, Fear’s showrunners revealed John Sr. will be vital moving forward for the hit zombie apocalypse series.
“He will play a pretty big part in the show going forward,” Andrew Chambliss told Entertainment Weekly.
“He obviously has a lot of unfinished business with Teddy, and he also has a lot of unfinished business in terms of his feelings towards his late son and all the ways that he failed him as a father.”
But, that’s not where the Deadwood connection ends
Having the actors star as father and son in Fear the Walking Dead and also appearing in Deadwood is a fun link. There is another strange connection as well.
While John Sr. may have abandoned his son in Fear the Walking Dead, over on Deadwood, it was Dillahunt’s character, Jack McCall, who killed Wild Bill Hickok.
“Garret Dillahunt is the reason I only got to do four episodes of that show [Deadwood],” Carradine revealed to Comic Book.
“I still have a bone to pick with him about that because I would have like to hung around. It was a great show … but yeah, Garret, he killed me!”
Fans of Kim Dickens, who played Madison Clark until Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead, also appeared in Deadwood. She played Joanie Stubbs for 34 episodes.
Finally, Ray McKinnon, who played Proctor John in Season 3 of Fear the Walking Dead, portrayed Reverend H.W. Smith in Deadwood.
Fear the Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.