Cy Tolliver
Owner of the Bella Union and Al Swearengen's chief rival.
Cyrus "Cy" Tolliver, played by Powers Boothe, owns the upscale Bella Union saloon in HBO's Deadwood and is Al Swearengen's main rival. Polished on the surface and ruthless underneath, he may lack Swearengen's gift for cunning duplicity, but he makes up for it in ambition.
Quick Facts
- Played by
- Powers Boothe
- Business
- Bella Union saloon
- Rival
- Al Swearengen
Lore & Background
Cy has an 18-year relationship with the former prostitute and madam Joanie Stubbs. He loves her and is bitter that she does not return his feelings, and when she leaves the Bella Union to open her own brothel, their bond becomes a mix of friendship and anger.
Reader's Guide
Cy dismisses the horrific conditions of the Chinese women in his business as a "cultural difference", though he accepts Doc Cochran's offer to treat them free. He also tries to blackmail Hearst for a 5% commission with a letter he claims holds Wolcott's confession to murder.
In season 2 Cy allies himself for a time with the Hearst interests and partners with Mr. Lee, a Tong leader from San Francisco, in a district of cheap gambling and Chinese prostitution. By the season's end Swearengen comes out on top: Wolcott and Lee are dead and Cy has been stabbed in the stomach by Andy Cramed. He recovers but grows desperate and unstable. In season 3 Hearst, who despises him, employs him as an agent, and on leaving camp hands him only his "other-than-mining interests". Furious, Cy stabs Leon and aims a gun at Hearst's departing coach, but does not fire. In Deadwood: The Movie he is said to have died, leaving the Bella Union to Joanie.
More in Characters & Personalities
Elsewhere in Deadwood
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