“Yellowstone” announced itself as a show that wasn’t afraid to kill off main characters with its 2018 pilot episode “Daybreak.” In that episode, we’re introduced to Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III, owner of the Yellowstone ranch in Montana, and his family. But by the end of the pilot we’d already seen two family members kick the bucket — most notably John’s eldest son Lee Dutton (Dave Annable), whose fate in “Yellowstone” started the series on a tragic note and set the story of the show in motion.

In the episode, Lee accompanies his father as they try to recover their cattle from the neighboring Broken Rock Indian Reservation. During their late-night recovery mission, however, the pair are confronted by the inhabitants of the reservation and the Broken Rock police, who show up in an attempt to keep the peace. Sadly, they’re unsuccessful in that mission, and Lee ends up being shot and killed by Reservation resident Robert Long (Jeremiah Bitsui).

This particular death was hugely significant as Lee was supposed to be John’s heir to the ranch, and had helped tend to the sprawling property since he was a child. While Lee only appears in this first episode (barring some photographs in episode two and a flashback scene in season four) he is one of the most important characters in “Yellowstone,” as it’s his death that kicks off John’s renewed search for an heir and the family in-fighting that results. It seems Annable, too, recognized the importance of his character as the actor tried to mount a campaign to keep Lee alive.

Dave Annable started a campaign to keep Lee Dutton on Yellowstone

Prior to “Yellowstone” — which won’t feature Kevin Costner in its final episodes — Dave Annable had appeared in “Brothers & Sisters,” “666 Park Avenue,” and “Heartbeat.” In all of those shows, Annable was a member of the main cast. But “Yellowstone” only needed the actor for one episode, despite his protestations.

Speaking to ComicBook for his new Paramount+ spy thriller series “Special Ops: Lioness,” which comes from “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, Annable told the outlet about being surprised at “how much fun [he] had at cowboy camp,” referring to shooting the “Yellowstone” pilot. The actor revealed that he found out his character was going to die after reading the script “right before going to work,” but quickly became enamored with life on-set. He continued:

“I’m from New York, and all of a sudden I’m on a horse in Montana. I’m playing cowboys like, ‘Yo, this is amazing.’ And we’re shooting my death scene. I remember I was like, ‘Actually I think I’m alright. This is just makeup, guys.’”

Annable went on to describe how he started a “Save Dave” campaign on the set that “lasted a little bit and kind of ran out of gas.” How serious this campaign was remains unclear, but it sounds as though Annable was just processing his feelings about wanting to remain on the show by joking around with the crew. Obviously, his short-lived campaign wasn’t successful, but Annable remains sanguine about his brief appearance in “Yellowstone,” adding, “I’m just so thankful for that experience and, although it was short, it was memorable and it was one of those things I’ll take away as one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do.”