Alexis Knief is native of South Carolina and is known as of the wife of famous actor, Timothy Olyphant.


Famous Husband

After finishing high school, Alexis attended University of South California. She is beautiful and simple woman, who got public attention because of her Hollywood star husband Timothy.  Alexis got married to her longtime boyfriend from Timothy Olyphant in July of 1991 when they were both in college. They met each other during the time they were studying fine arts USC. Being a celebrity wife, she chooses to always stay behind the scenes while she helps out with her husband’s success. The couple saw Tim’s star in the middle of the 90s after Tim began his acting career.

For more than twenty years, her husband has appeared in numerous popular movies like “Gone in 60 seconds”, ”Scream 2”,  “Rango”, and “Mother's Day”. She has supported him for the long duration of his career. Alexis always rehearsed with Tim for his roles and helped him write speeches for different public events. Like a perfect wife, she also did a great job in raising their beautiful kids. She is always ready to give her love and care to her family. Her husband, Tim once said in interview, that “It's really hard to find such a perfect bonding like we have in Hollywood world”.

Celebrity Lifestyle

Tim’s acting career was not an easy lifestyle for Alexis and her children. Once in an interview, Timothy was asked an interesting question “What was the reaction of your wife, when she saw your sex scene on screen?”. Tim said that it was one of the subjects that they don't prefer to talk about because it is inappropriate and doesn’t really mean anything, “Alexis is very smart woman and she really understands that my on screen work is just a professional thing and such moments are not a big deal to make a big issue.”

He also said that she is a very kind and supporting woman. In 2011, when Tim got an Emmy nomination for playing Raylan Givens in the TV show “Justified”, Alexis helped him write a funny speech, but her husband didn’t win and the world didn’t get to hear it. Tim made an appearance on the Conan O’Brien show to promote the third season of “Justified”. He told Conan what the speech would have been if he won the Emmy, “Kyle Chandler won the Emmy, it was lovely, I was very happy for him. I feel like he deprived some people of a good speech. My opening line — this was my wife’s idea actually — I was going to look at [the trophy] and then look out at my wife of twenty years and say, ‘Well, honey, this is it. I’m finally leaving you.’”

It has been adjustment for Alexis to married to a popular husband. Alexis is kind of the person, who usually likes to avoid any camera and publicity attention. She appears only at very important events, when she is needed by her husband. Alexis and Tim are a very private family and they don't like to expose their relationship to others that much in public photos.

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Justified Man

One of her husband’s most iconic roles as his portrayal of US Marshall on the show, Justified. Tim was asked by Rolling Stone if his portrayal of a US Marshall was accurate, “There’s some acknowledgement that they’re a bunch of cowboys out there chasing people down. I’ve met my fair share and there’s a number of them out there that seem to be. . . I don’t know if thrill-seekers is the word, but they enjoy the chase. I can say that some of that dialogue we’ve used over the years came out of some Marshals’ mouths. Things like, “Waking up every day and looking forward to fucking someone’s day up.” [Laughs] I didn’t made that up! I heard that!”

He was also asked if the show correctly depicted Rural America, “Lots of the stuff we’ve got going on is going on. There’s crime and shit-kickers and backward-ass white trash. I hate to tell you, but racism is alive and well in a lot of parts of the world. I’m guilty of when I first read this five years ago, I remember asking myself, “God, is this going to feel dated?” But between that and shooting the pilot, I realized there is nothing dated about this at all. That was right at the height of Congressmen accusing each other of being racist; people were talking about a “Black president.” Racism was a big topic then. We were outside Pittsburgh and people would tell me that the Klan was alive and well in those parts. I don’t know if we’ve tackled that issue as of late, but I know when we started, it was big.”

His character Raylan wins the attention of a lot of women on the show, when asked if he personally had an advice to give to men, Tim directly referenced his marriage and said, “No! [Laughs.] I’m happy to help out whenever I can, but I’ve been married 23 years. I don’t know if I’m the best person to ask.”

Family Life

Even though Tim doesn’t have any advice to give to single men, he does have a lot of advice to give to newlyweds. He was able to keep a long marriage with Alexis even in spite of any possible Hollywood distractions because their love was forged long before he became famous. If she had just been attracted to his fame and money, things may have been different but he knew that he found a partner for life because she genuinely loves the person that he is.

The couple is blessed by three children. Their first kid, Grace Katherine was born in 1999. The second child, Henry was born in 2001 and one their last daughter Vivian was born two years later. Alexis have a very strong relationship with Tim and she doesn’t want to call him ex-husband. The family currently resides in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.

Last Modified: Mar 12, 2020


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