A Villian on Screen, A Gentleman Off: PBR Is Not Neal McDonough’s First Rodeo

Star of the upcoming film “The Last Rodeo” joins Austin Gamblers as a team owner

Neal McDonough | PBR

Neal McDonough, the London-trained actor who has played a collection of Hollywood’s most loathsome villains that millions love to hate, is quickly becoming the unofficial cowboy gentleman of PBR.

The ubiquitous bull riding booster, leader of the “Sacramento Sip” in the stands, and star of The Last Rodeo, which will go up against Tom Cruise’s latest Mission: Impossible installment in theaters coast to coast on Memorial Day weekend, has added another notch on this PBR belt: Team owner.

McDonough and his wife Ruvé have invested in the Austin Gamblers, owned by Egon and Abby Durban, joining Michael Dell, the father of the PC industry, as a minority investor in the 2024 PBR Teams Champions.

“There’s a brotherhood here in PBR that I’ve never seen in any other sport—and I’ve played a lot of them,” McDonough said. “Ruvé and I feel completely blessed to be part of this world, to tell these stories, and to now be part of the Gamblers family as we help bring this incredible sport to even more people.”

Bull Stock Media

When not using Ruvé’s boot as a grand chalice during a break in the action at PBR events (a raucous moment known as the “Sacramento Sip,” named for the place where the tradition originated), McDonough is a regular on broadcasts and the league’s social media, espousing his admiration for a sport drawing in his entire family.

“Americans love Americana,” McDonough said. “That’s what we’re tapping into with our films and that’s what PBR has certainly tapped into. What I love so much about PBR more than anything else is that it’s for the whole family, and everyone is rooting for every guy to make it to 8 seconds. Opposing riders are even rooting for each other and helping each other out. It’s completely unifying and uplifting.”

Add into the mix the sport’s patriotic presentation, and the whole scene never ceases to move McDonough.

“My dad, as soon as he got off the plane from Ireland with 12 bucks in his pocket, walked into the Army recruiting office and said, ‘Make me an American.’ He went overseas for five years and became an American citizen,” he said. “He was so proud to be an American and carry a work ethic and sense of optimism that my mom also instilled in me – nothing is impossible if, when asked for a dollar’s worth of work, you give them two.”

McDonough wanted The Last Rodeo to reflect positive themes he believes are overlooked by most filmmakers.  

The idea came when shooting a Western and thinking, “What would happen to me if something happened to Ruvé?”

He dreamed up a story he describes as “Rocky on a bull.”

The Last Rodeo, directed by Jon Avnet, cast real bull riders like Daylon Swearingen competing against Joe Wainwright (Neal McDonough). | Bull Stock Media

Joe Wainwright, a retired bull riding legend, returns to the arena in a desperate, dangerous attempt to save the life of his grandson. Wainwright doesn’t chase and catch a chicken, but he does face old demons, spar with young hot shots (one played by 2022 PBR World Champion Daylon Swearingen), rediscover his faith, and fight for his family. Ruvé appears in a poignant flashback as Joe’s late wife, sharing an on-screen kiss.

Anyone familiar with McDonough’s career will recognize that kiss as delicious vindication.

PBR

In 2010, he was set to star in the ABC series Scoundrels. He was fired…for refusing to perform sex scenes. Though a devout Catholic, McDonough made the decision out of respect for Ruvé.

“I love acting,” he said. “But it’s not even close to how much I love Ruvé and my kids.”

It may be the land of air kisses, glossy smiles, and sugary glamour, but Hollywood can also be the capital of brutal retribution. McDonough was blackballed.

Acting was all he wanted to do since sneaking into the cinema as an eight-year-old, captivated by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There was something magic about being in the theater, fixated on the screen, giving your all to actors doing the same for you.

At 14, with five older siblings charting their direction in life, Neal was on his own in wondering about his path, the dreams he’d chase, the rest of his life.

A high school play came along. He was Snoopy, and at the end, the audience stood and applauded. God’s gift has been unlocked. 

He had the chance to play college baseball on scholarship but decided to attend Syracuse University, drawn to their theater department, then furthering his classical theatre training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

A reputable acting career followed, but now, as persona non grata for merely standing up for what he believed in, his ability to exercise that gift had been taken away.

“I lost a job, my house, my cars, everything,” McDonough said.

The only thing he didn’t lose faith in was Jameson whiskey.   

“It was hard. It hurt. What happened made me dig deeper and decide what was the most important thing in my life. It was my family and God. That’s what we’ve been writing about.” 

The McDonough family | Ruve McDonough

As an Irishman whose parents had gone from the motherland to Boston to raise a family in small-town Massachusetts, it was a challenge to get away from part of his culture. Oceans of booze flowing at Hollywood functions were an ever-present temptation.  

Neal got sober by opening his heart to God and the love and support from Ruvé, a South African model he had met in the United Kingdom while filming Band of Brothers, the HBO miniseries providing his breakout role as Lt. Lynn “Buck” Compton, a layered character displaying McDonough’s emotional range from army-boot tough to cracked eggshell vulnerable.

(SPOILER ALERT: While leading the Sacramento Sip to fuel a frenzy of partying throughout the arena, McDonough drinks non-alcoholic beer or Monster Energy.)

“You have to find the inner strength to temptations, whatever they may be in life,” he said about his alcoholism in an interview with Revelation TV. “I don’t know if I could do that without having the relationship I have with the Lord. I can’t imagine it’s even possible. I have had a bazillion conversations with Jesus, and I know he’s listening to them all. He gives the answers every time.”

In accepting all the answers, including some he didn’t like, McDonough’s acting career has flourished.

McDonough backstage at Madison Square Garden | Andrew Giangola

At 58, he has appeared in more than 120 films and television shows. None make him happier than when mounting a horse in jeans and boots. A side revolver makes it even better.

“Westerns are my favorite genre in film, and I love being part of the Western culture,” he said. “It’s always a different horse, and what could be a struggle at first progresses into a great friendship.”

While he has been typecast as an antagonist due to his personal mores (“nobody wants to kiss the villain,” he joked), a first-look agreement with Angel Studios, known for projects with a message, including the blockbuster Sound of Freedom and the television series The Chosen, provides an outlet for the McDonoughs to create and tell inspiring, faith-based stories in a world filled with darkness. In Boon, a hit man finds God. In Homestead, after a nuclear disaster, a survivalist grapples with the moral dilemmas of loyalty, sacrifice, and true friendship.  

Ruvé, who became Neal’s rock after his mother passed away in 1993, serves on the business side as his right hand, taking care of fundraising, marketing and financial matters.

As the PBR Unleash The Beast season heats up toward championship finale at AT&T Stadium on May 17-18, the couple, with five Spring-breaking children in tow, will be at Ford Idaho Center in Nampa, Idaho this weekend to officially announce their deal with the Austin Gamblers.

Beyond the interviews and jersey unveil, the smart money says that during a break, the jumbotron camera will zoom in on a square-jawed man in a cowboy hat, arctic ice blue eyes trained on his tall, radiant wife, taking the boot she’s removed to hold high above his head, whooping the communal celebration up a notch in what has become his signature moment, one that is, grandly speaking, non-consequential in a teetering world, but a performance ringing with gusto that will receive his all, like Newman and Redford for a wide-eyed eight-year-old, like every role he plays and the father and husband and human being he strives to be every day, like every bull rider about to nod his head, including battered but never-past-his-prime Joe Wainwright, sitting tall on a bovine bomb about to explode, riding for all the right reasons.