Background and career
Lee Arthur Horsley (born May 15, 1955) is an American retired film, television, and theater actor known for starring roles in the television series Nero Wolfe (1981), Matt Houston (1982–1985), and Paradise (1988–1991). He starred in the 1982 film The Sword and the Sorcerer and recorded the audiobook edition of Lonesome Dove.
Horsley began his acting career touring in stage productions of West Side Story, Damn Yankees, and Oklahoma!. In 1981, he portrayed TV detective Archie Goodwin in the short-lived NBC drama series Nero Wolfe. He played the title character in the 1982–1985 ABC detective series Matt Houston, and starred as Ethan Allen Cord in the 1988–1991 Western Heritage Award-winning series Paradise. This was followed by a lead role on the CBS police drama Bodies of Evidence (1992–1993). He also starred opposite Lynda Carter in a series set in the French and Indian War era, Hawkeye. Horsley also starred as Rafe Beaudeen in North and South: Book II and as Nick Burnham in the Danielle Steel miniseries, Crossings opposite Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer. He appeared in the feature-length cult film The Sword and the Sorcerer in 1982, and he appeared in its sequel Tales of an Ancient Empire in 2010. He recorded the audiobook edition of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and Chuck Norris's Justice Riders. In 2006, Horsley and Marshall R. Teague traveled the world in search of exotic game on the Outdoor Life Network for the reality show, Benelli's Dream Hunts. Horsley appeared in the 2012 Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained as Sheriff Gus and then in Tarantino's 2015 western The Hateful Eight as a stagecoach driver. In the 1987–1988 theatre season, Horsley acted in the Jerry Herman musical, Mack and Mabel, at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey with Janet Metz, Scott Ellis, Ed Evanko, and Ruth Williamson in the cast. Robert Johanson was director.
Horsley was born in Muleshoe, Texas, the seat of Bailey County. He grew up in the Denver, Colorado area, sang in a church choir and graduated from Englewood High School in 1973. Horsley married Stephanie Downer in 1980 and fathered a daughter, Amber, in 1981 and a son, Logan, in 1983. Horsley is an outdoorsman, horseman, rodeo participant, and western novelist.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
