At a time when most American Indian roles on television and in the movies were played by white actors covered with brown body paint. Will Sampson stood out as someone who was real. With his imposing 6 foot 7 inch frame and his uncompromising integrity, he insisted on playing Indians as real people and not as some hackneyed collection of Hollywood cliches. Sampson's refusal to stereotype and his insistence on cultural accuracy heralded a movement toward using American Indian actors on screen and stage.

Will was a Muscogee Creek Indian born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, in 1934. Oknulgee has been the center of the Creek Tribe since the middle of the 1800's when the U.S. government forced the Creeks to leave their homelands in Georgia and Alabama for the arid Indian Territory of eastern Oklahoma. The Muscogee in Oklahoma faced the same problems as other American Indian peoples. Many were poor and had no jobs. Their schools were inadequate, and the government offered little assistance. At the time of Will's birth in 1934, Oklahoma and the nation as a whole were pulling themselves out of a terrible economic depression. When Will was fourteen, there were few opportunities for an Indian boy in post-dust bowl Oklahoma, so he turned to rodeo bull riding. He once told a reporter for the "New York Times", "When you're an Indian at 14, you have a lot of anger, and rodeoing is a way to dispel a lot of it."

Throughout the next twenty-five years, Will was to try his hand at a lot of different occupations. He knew he had an artistic talent, and he drew and painted whenever he could. But painting didn't always pay the bills. To support his growing family (By 1976 he had six children, ranging in age from one to nineteen), he worked as an oil field roughneck, construction worker, linesman, and rodeo rider. In 1975, Sampson got his first big acting break. A friend suggested he audition for the role of Chief Bromden in the movie adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel , "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". He won the role of Jack Nicholson's mute Indian friend and was an instant success when the film was released. Other movie roles followed in quick succession. In all his roles, Will insisted on playing Indians as real, multidimensional characters. Scorning the traditional Hollywood stereotypes of Indians as either noble red men or savage red skins, he played Indians as people, with a full range of complex emotions, motivations, and behaviors. Even though his methods were honored and his views sought (scriptwriters frequently consulted him about the accuracy of their Indian details), Will knew that Hollywood writers and directors had a long way to go before American Indians would be viewed as more than just cartoon caricatures. As he once scornfully explained to a "New York Times" reporter, "They're still using'em as livestock. They somehow just can't seem to bring it around to give the truth about Indians." It was to hasten the truth that Will founded, in 1983, the American Indian Registry for the Performing Arts. Its objectives were simple--To establish and develop a central registry of American Indian performers and technical personnel in the entertainment field. The registry's other services included disseminating information, offering casting assistance, and encouraging cultural accuracy.

To further the American Indian cause, Sampson frequently spoke to schools and prisons about the plight of the contemporary Indian,and about the deep-seated prejudice he felt stille existed towards his people. Recognizing that many American Indians suffered from alcoholism, Sampson also channeled a portion of his movie earnings to a California enterprise called Red Wind, which offers assistance to Indians with substance-abuse problems. Throughout his life, Sampson remained unimpressed with his own success as a movie actor. As he once explained to a reporter, "Movies offer me a lot of time to paint." He considered himself first and foremost a Muscogee and an artist, with acting coming in a distant third. As a painter, his one man shows were well received, and his works have been exibited at the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, and all museums across the country. Still, to the public, Will Sampson was known primarily as an unusually memorable screen actor. He brought new depths of realism and sensitivity to roles that had traditionally been seen as dull and unimaginative.

Will Sampson died on June 3, 1987, of complications after a heart-lung transplant. He is buried in Grave Creek Indian Cemetery in the heart of Muscogee Nation.