Who was Melanie Olmstead?
When the second season of the series “Yellowstone” was released in 2019, fans of the series noticed that the finale episode entitled “Sins of the Father” had a special tribute to a woman named Melanie Olmstead, and many people wanted to know more about her, who she was and why she was mentioned in the title card of the series. In the closing credits was written ‘In Memory of MELANIE OLMSTEAD 1968-2019’, and immediately after the episode was finished, fans were quick to go on social media platforms to ask who this lady was.
One Twitter user asked: ‘What was the connection with Melanie Olmstead and tonight’s season finale?’, while others asked which character she was playing in the series, since many “Yellowstone” fans thought that she was a part of the show. Thus, the producers answered the questions, explaining to the world the connection between Melanie and the show. The truth is that Melanie was a crew member, who worked as a location manager, and was a part of the transportation department for the series “Yellowstone”.
The rest of the crew and cast members wanted to pay a tribute to her, in recognition of her work behind the scenes. Besides her work for this western drama, Melanie was also known for her work as a driver and location assistant for numerous Hollywood movies, such as “Frozen”, “12 Dogs of Christmas: Great Puppy Rescue”, and “Wind River”, among others.
Early life and education
Melanie Olmstead was born under the zodiac sign of Scorpio on 15 November 1968, in Salt Lake City, Utah USA; she held American nationality, but her ethnicity is unknown since she was adopted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpAAv8mnx2A
Her adoptive parents were Reid Howard and Janet Corbridge, about whom little is known, except that when Janet died in 1979, Melanie’s father remarried to Loa Rose. Speaking of Melanie’s educational background, she attended a local high school, and upon matriculating in 1986, enrolled at The University of Utah, from which she graduated with a BA degree in 1990.
Career
It isn’t clear what Melanie was doing after her graduation, but in 2000, she started working as a location assistant for the movie “Primary Suspect”, starring William Baldwin; the movie’s filming location was Melanie’s hometown.
In 2004, Melanie served as a van driver for the movie “Benji: Off the Leash!”, which was filmed in Payson, Utah, and then in 2010, she was a van driver for the movie “Frozen”. In 2012, she worked as a driver for the movies “Darling Companion”, “John Carter”, and “12 Dogs of Christmas: Great Puppy Rescue”, and then, two years later, she was a driver for the movie “Jackie & Ryan”, and in 2015, she worked as an additional driver for “Wild Horses” and “Point Break”, while in 2017, she was a driver to the one of the movie stars Jeremy Renner, while he was filming “Wind River”. Melanie was also a driver for the series “Snatchers” and “Andi Mack”, while in 2018, she was a cast driver for the movie “Hereditary”.
Melanie also worked for the movie “Joe Bell”, which was also filmed in Salt Lake City, as was “Yellowstone”.
Love life
There have been various rumors both concerning Melanie’s love life and her sexual orientation, however, although some rumors were saying that she was married and a mother of three, the truth is that she was lesbian, and that she lived with her spouse, Annalise Caroline Ford; they didn’t have children together; the two married on 31 December 2015. According to sources, Annalise is from Atlanta, Georgia, and currently lives in Salt Lake City, where she’s a Professional Client Consultant at WEbops, LLC.
It seems that Melanie and Annalise enjoyed their marriage, if we can believe Annalise’s Facebook account, on which there are numerous photos featuring the two of them hugging and smiling, and most of Annalise’s descriptions are full of love for and commitment to Melanie. On 1 January 2022, Annalise posted a photo featuring herself and Melanie hugging, and she wrote: ‘Six years. Three wedding anniversaries together, and three without her.’
How did she die?
After Melanie died, and the “Yellowstone” crew mentioned her name in the title card, many people wanted to know what the cause of her death was, and there were various theories ranging from a car accident to a murder.
However, the truth is that Melanie died from complications caused by cancer that she was battling for years – she died on 25 May 2019, in her and Annalise’s home in Salt Lake City. On 30 June 2019, the event entitled ‘Celebration of Life for Melanie Olmstead’ was hosted in her hometown, and her family and friends paid tribute to her life, saying:’ Celebration of life for Melanie Olmstead was amazing! Horsewomen, Writers, Artists, Theater, Film, cast, and crew peeps! Some I have known for 30 years! What beautiful souls! My Salt Lake family! Ride on, our beautiful Melanie Olmstead!’ Melanie was a big fan of horses, and once wrote about her horse Mahogany, saying: ‘My love affair with horses started about the time I learned to walk, but I didn’t get my first ‘just mine’ horse until I was an adult.
This beautiful, amazing girl has been with me since college, and recently celebrated her 37th birthday’, adding that Mahogany was her oldest friend. Melanie was a blonde with piercing blue eyes, at the time of her death aged 50. Most people who knew Melanie said that she was an amazing person, and one of Annalise’s Facebook friends wrote under Melanie’s photo: ‘Missing Mel too! She was a good friend, a great listener, and helped me through many tough years during my grandma/dad caregiving adventures. She gave me so much strength to push through those challenging times’, adding that she will be forever grateful to her.
