04/06/2026
In 1975, a rodeo cowboy who'd never acted before became one of cinema's most unforgettable characters. He was discovered not on a stage, but through a rodeo announcer who knew the biggest Native American in the circuit. His name was Will Sampson.
The producers of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest were desperate. For months, they'd been searching for someone to play Chief Bromden, a towering Native American patient in a psychiatric ward who pretends to be deaf and mute.
They needed someone who could stand next to Jack Nicholson and not be overshadowed. Someone physically imposing. Someone authentic.
They'd auditioned countless professional actors. None had the right presence.
Then they met Mel Lambert.
Lambert was a local businessman and rodeo announcer who had strong relationships with Native Americans throughout Oregon. When producer Michael Douglas mentioned they were looking for a "big guy" to play the Chief, Lambert knew exactly who to call.
Six months later, Lambert called Douglas with news: "The biggest so*******ch Indian came in the other day!"
That "biggest so*******ch Indian" was Will Sampson.
William Sampson Jr. was born on September 27, 1933, in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma. He was a full-blooded member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
For about 20 years, Sampson competed in rodeos. His specialty was bronco busting. He was on the rodeo circuit, living his life, when Hollywood came calling.
He stood 6 feet 7 inches tall. He was a painter. He was a rodeo cowboy.
He was not an actor.
When Sampson flew to meet with producers and Jack Nicholson, the plane was small. Sampson was so large that Nicholson sat in his lap during the flight.
Douglas later recalled Nicholson repeating over and over: "It's the Chief, man, it's the Chief!"
Sampson was hired after a single interview. He'd never acted before in his life.
When he went to that interview, he brought some of his paintings with him. He figured if he didn't get the part, maybe he could sell a painting to the producers.
He got the part. And they still bought his paintings.
On set, Will Sampson became something more than just an actor learning his lines. He became a steadying presence.
Director Miloš Forman was obsessed with perfection. Jack Nicholson was full of wild, manic energy. The film was being shot at the actual Oregon State Hospital with real psychiatric patients working alongside professional actors.
It was intense. It was chaotic.
Sampson was the calm in the storm.
If you've seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, you know he plays Chief Bromden, a man who pretends to be deaf and mute to protect himself from a world that has broken him. In the film, Nicholson's character McMurphy befriends the Chief and slowly draws him out of his silence.
The final scene—when Chief Bromden rips a massive marble sink out of the floor and hurls it through a window to escape—became one of the most iconic moments in cinema history.
It's a symbol of pure freedom. Of finding your voice. Of breaking free from the systems that cage you.
The film was released in November 1975. It became a massive critical and commercial success.
It won all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), and Best Screenplay. Only two other films have ever achieved this: It Happened One Night (1934) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Will Sampson's performance as Chief Bromden made him a star.
But he never forgot who he was.
"I'm first, last, and always a painter," he once said.
For Sampson, acting was just another way to tell a story. His real passion was art.
His paintings depicted the life and traditions of his Muscogee people. He wanted Native Americans to be seen as human beings with deep spirits—not the "savages" or background extras they usually were in old Western movies.
His large painting depicting the Ribbon Dance of the Muscogee people is in the collection of the Creek Council House Museum in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. His works have been exhibited at the Library of Congress, the Amon Carter Museum, the Gilcrease Museum, and the Philbrook Museum of Art.
More than 50 of his paintings are collected in the 2009 book Beyond Cuckoo's Nest: The Art and Life of William Sampson, Jr. by Zoe Escobar.
But Sampson's impact went far beyond his art.
He became a fierce advocate for authentic Native American representation in Hollywood.
During production of The White Buffalo in 1977, Sampson learned that the producers had hired non-Native American actors to play most of the Indian roles—a common practice dating back to the earliest days of moviemaking.
In protest, Sampson refused to act alongside them. He shut down production for a day.
That experience changed everything.
In 1983, Sampson and his longtime personal assistant Zoe Escobar founded the American Indian Registry for the Performing Arts. They secured a $30,000 grant from the Administration for Native Americans.
The registry became a clearinghouse for Native American actors, giving them opportunities they'd never had before.
Sampson hoped the registry would create opportunities not just in front of the camera, but behind it too.
"There are a lot of great stories of Indian scholars, Indian writers, great poets, artisans, or even doctors … true stories of great Indians," he said in an interview.
The registry's work eventually helped pave the way for films like Dances With Wolves, which featured Native American actors in all the Native American roles and went on to win seven Oscars, including Best Picture.
After One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Sampson continued acting. He appeared in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) as Chief Ten Bears, The White Buffalo (1977) as Crazy Horse, and Orca (1977).
He had a recurring role on the television series Vega$ from 1978 to 1981, playing Harlon Twoleaf.
In 1986, he appeared in Poltergeist II: The Other Side as Taylor, a Native American shaman.
On the set of Poltergeist II, something unusual happened.
Sampson performed Native American blessing ceremonies on the set. According to reports, he claimed the production was haunted and used rituals to bless sets and locations.
Some sources say it was an exorcism. Others call it a purification ceremony.
People on set started calling him a real-life medicine man. To them, he wasn't just playing a shaman—he carried something deeper, something spiritual that went beyond reading lines from a script.
The Poltergeist films would later become infamous for the so-called "Poltergeist Curse"—four cast members died during or shortly after the trilogy was filmed.
Will Sampson would become one of them.
In 1987, Sampson was diagnosed with scleroderma, a chronic degenerative autoimmune condition that affects the heart, lungs, and skin.
It's brutal. It's progressive. It's fatal.
During his illness, Sampson's weight dropped from 260 pounds to 140 pounds, causing severe complications from malnutrition.
He underwent a heart and lung transplant at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. At the time, such a surgery had a very low survival rate.
On June 3, 1987, Will Sampson died of post-operative kidney failure and fungal infection. He was 53 years old.
"I will miss a great friend," Jack Nicholson said through his agent.
Sampson's body was returned to his childhood hometown of Okmulgee, Oklahoma. His family held a private Muscogee ceremony—an all-night wake followed by burial the next day.
He was buried at Graves Creek Cemetery in Hitchita, within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation boundaries.
Years later, Craig T. Nelson, Sampson's co-star from Poltergeist II, happened to be passing through the area. He wanted to pay his respects.
He drove around for hours trying to find the cemetery. Finally, he stopped at a corner store and asked where Sampson was buried.
The man standing next to Nelson in the store was Will Sampson's cousin. He offered to show Nelson the way.
It was cicada season. The buzzing was overwhelming.
Nelson approached Sampson's grave and said, "Hey Will, it's Craig."
Within seconds, the cicadas stopped. Complete silence.
Nelson never forgot it.
Will Sampson's legacy lived on through his children. His son Timothy Sampson played Chief Bromden in a 2001 Broadway revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Gary Sinise.
His sons Samsoche "Sam" and Lumhe "Micco" Sampson formed the Sampson Brothers duo, performing Native American hoop dance to hip-hop music.
In 2018, on what would have been Will's 85th birthday, the brothers released a musical tribute called "I Know This Man":
I know this man / Who knows me more / It is through my blood / He again walks this Earth / And nears a vision / of showing the World / what Native American / really means.
Will Sampson never wanted to be just another Hollywood star.
He was a painter first. A rodeo cowboy. A member of the Muscogee Nation. A father. An advocate for his people.
Acting was just another canvas for him—another way to tell the stories that mattered.
Every time someone watches the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and sees Chief Bromden rip that massive marble sink out of the floor and hurl it through the window to escape into the night, they're seeing more than just a movie scene.
They're seeing a symbol of freedom.
They're seeing a man who refused to let the world silence him.
They're seeing Will Sampson—a 6-foot-7-inch Muscogee painter and rodeo cowboy who'd never acted before, who became a cinema legend by simply being himself.
He helped the world see that being "big" isn't just about height.
It's about the size of your heart. The strength of your spirit. The courage to tell the truth.
Will Sampson was a giant in every sense of the word.
