Over the course of Quentin Tarantino's career he's made a habit of going back through the cinematic encyclopedia that he calls a brain to find the perfect actor for the role he needs to cast. This famously began with John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, who saw his career completely rejuvenated, but continued with Robert Forester in Jackie Brown, David Carridine in Kill Bill, Kurt Russell in Death Proof and Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds. For his next film, Tarantino has already lined up an absolutely stellar cast that includes Jaime Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Costner but now he's brought aboard a name that you may not have heard about in a while.

Gerald McRaney, best known as the lead from the series Major Dad, has signed on for a part in Django Unchained, according to Variety. In the film, which is being both written and directed by Tarantino, an escaped slave (Foxx) teams up with a German bounty hunter (Waltz) to take revenge against his sadistic former owner (DiCaprio) and rescue his wife. It's unknown what role McRaney will play. Production is scheduled to begin production in November and the Weinstein Company has assigned the film a December 25, 2012 release date.

McRaney is no stranger to wearing a cowboy hat, having played George Hearst on 13 episodes of the HBO series Deadwood, but there's still one key piece of casting left for Django Unchained: the hero's wife. It was said back in June that actress Kerry Washington was high on Tarantino's shortlist, but there's been no news on that front since. Who would you like to see play Django's wife? Who do you think McRaney will play? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.