Movie
Photo: The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons Photo shows actor Sam Elliott
Lee Scoresby
A Texan balloonist in a parallel universe, with a hare for a soul and a gray walrus for a face. Casting has rarely been this obvious.
- Actor
- Sam Elliott
- Film
- The Golden Compass
- Year
- 2007
- Medium
- Movie
- Style
- Walrus
- Fan Votes
- 0 legendary · 0 meh
Why Lee Scoresby's Mustache Matters
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels describe Lee Scoresby as a lean Texan aeronaut with a drawl, a balloon, and a hare-shaped daemon named Hester. When The Golden Compass (2007) went into production, there was only one sensible casting choice, and the producers made it.
Sam Elliott plays Scoresby with the full gray walrus, a wide-brimmed hat, and a voice that sounds like it was recorded in a canyon. He is an ally to Lyra Belacqua and the armored bear Iorek Byrnison, and his mustache is the most reassuring thing in a film full of Gobblers and Magisterium agents.
The movie itself was a mixed affair and the planned sequels never came, but Elliott's Scoresby remains a fan favorite — the moment a fantasy franchise and a western mustache met and shook hands.
- *The Golden Compass* (2007) was adapted from Philip Pullman's 1995 novel *Northern Lights*, published as *The Golden Compass* in the United States.
- Lee Scoresby's daemon, Hester, was voiced by Kathy Bates.
- The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
How to Grow the Walrus
Big, bushy, and draped over the mouth like a velvet curtain. The mustache of wise men and Sam Elliott.
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