Scott Wilson Biography

Scott Wilson (born March 29, 1942) is an American film and television actor. Wilson has more than 50 film credits from the 1960s to the 2010s, including In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Great Gatsby, Dead Man Walking, Pearl Harbor, and Junebug. In 1980, Wilson received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture for his role in The Ninth Configuration. In 2011, Wilson joined the cast of the AMC television series, The Walking Dead, in which he plays veterinarian and Greene family patriarch, Hershel Greene.

Early life

Wilson is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He hitchhiked from Atlanta to Los Angeles with a friend in 1961 when he was nineteen years old. His friend eventually returned to Georgia, while Wilson enrolled in an acting class and pursued the craft as his profession.

Career

Wilson made his screen debut portraying characters suspected of murder in his first two films. In his debut film, Wilson played a murder suspect in 1967's In the Heat of the Night, which starred Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger and Warren Oates. His follow-up role, in the same year, was In Cold Blood, based on the book of the same name by Truman Capote. Wilson portrays real-life murderer Richard Hickock, while Robert Blake played his partner, Perry Smith. Director Richard Brooks cast Wilson and Blake in the starring roles specifically because they were unknown at the time. The director passed over better-known actors, including Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, for the parts. Wilson later explained Brooks' casting motivations: "Brooks hired two 'unknowns' and he wanted to keep it that way. We were treated like two killers he had somehow run across."

The film earned Wilson an appearance on the cover of Life Magazine, published on May 12, 1967. Wilson was just 24 years old at the time. The cover features Truman Capote standing between Wilson and Blake on an empty highway in Kansas. The caption, Nightmare Revisited, appears with them on the cover. Wilson appeared in The Great Gatsby in 1974 opposite Robert Redford. He received a 1980 Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Ninth Configuration by director and friend William Peter Blatty. He lost the Golden Globe to Timothy Hutton. In 1995 Wilson got attention for his role as a prison chaplain in Dead Man Walking, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, based on the book of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean.

Wilson's long filmography also includes The Gypsy Moths, The Right Stuff, A Year of the Quiet Sun, Malone, The Grass Harp, Junebug, The Host, Monster, Young Guns II, Pearl Harbor, Big Stan, Judge Dredd, the Shiloh film series and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Wilson has filmed on location in South Korea, Japan and Spain. Wilson had a recurring role in several episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Sam Braun, father of crime-scene investigator Catherine Willows (portrayed by Marg Helgenberger). Braun was killed off in the episode "Built to Kill, Part 2". In the fall of 2011 he also made an appearance opposite Laura Dern in the HBO series, Enlightened.

Wilson was cast as Dr. Hershel Greene in the second season of The Walking Dead in June 2011. The role has earned him positive reviews, including a "cheer" from TV Guide, which wrote that he had contributed "subtle shades of humanity to the character of Hershel Greene." Wilson was offered the opportunity to join the show while visiting his 97-year-old mother in Georgia. He has described his mother as "a fan of the show."

Wilson reflected on his career in a 2011 interview with Access Atlanta's Rodney Ho: "It's been up and down. It's always been. You have dry spells. At different times, you are starting over. If you love it, you stay with it. That's what I'm doing. I've accomplished more than I would have hoped to have accomplished. I don't want to be a big movie star. I can be someone who walks the streets and not get mobbed. I want to be as fine an actor as I can be. I am still striving to be as good as I can be." Wilson was filming scenes for The Walking Dead in Senoia, Georgia, at the time the interview took place.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	In the Heat of the Night	Harvey Oberst
1967	In Cold Blood	Richard Hickock
1969	Castle Keep	Corporal Clearboy
1969	The Gypsy Moths	Malcolm Webson
1971	The Grissom Gang	Slim Grissom
1972	The New Centurions	Gus Plebesly
1973	Lolly-Madonna XXX	Thrush
1974	The Great Gatsby	George Wilson
1976	The Passover Plot	Judah
1979	La Ilegal	Police officer
1980	The Ninth Configuration	Captain Billy Cutshaw	Mystfest Award for Best Actor Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture
1983	The Right Stuff	Scott Crossfield
1984	A Year of the Quiet Sun	Norman
1984	Downstream	Mitch
1985	The Aviator	Jerry Stiller
1986	Blue City	Perry Kerch	Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
1987	Malone	Paul Barlow
1989	Johnny Handsome	Mikey Chalmette
1990	La Cruz de Iberia	Johnson
1990	The Exorcist III	Dr. Temple
1990	Young Guns II	Governor Lew Wallace
1991	Femme Fatale	Dr. Beaumont
1991	Pure Luck	Frank Grimes
1993	Flesh and Bone	Elliott
1993	Geronimo: An American Legend	Redondo
1995	Tall Tale	Zeb
1995	Mother	Dr. Chase	Direct-to-video
1995	Judge Dredd	Pa Angel
1995	The Grass Harp	Eugene Fenwick
1995	Dead Man Walking	Chaplain Farlely
1996	Shiloh	Judd Travers
1997	Our God's Brother	Adam Chmielowski
1997	G.I. Jane	Captain Salem
1998	Puraido: Unmei No Toki	Prosecutor Joseph B. Keenan
1998	Clay Pigeons	Sheriff Dan Mooney
1999	Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season	Judd Travers
1999	The Debtors
2000	South of Heaven, West of Hell	Clete Monroe
2000	The Way of the Gun	Hale Chidduck
2001	The Animal	Mayor
2001	Pearl Harbor	General George Marshall
2002	Bark!	Harold
2002	Coastlines	Pa Mann
2002	Don't Let Go	Jimmy Ray Stevens
2003	Monster	Horton / Last "John"
2003	The Last Samurai	Ambassador Swanbeck
2005	Junebug	Eugene Johnsten
2006	Come Early Morning	Lowell Fowler
2006	Open Window	Eddie
2006	Saving Shiloh	Judd Travers
2006	The Host	Military doctor
2006	Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon	Eugene
2006	The Sensation of Sight	Tucker
2007	The Heartbreak Kid	Boo
2007	Big Stan	Warden Gasque
2009	Saving Grace B. Jones	Reverend Potter
2009	Bottleworld	Murray
2009	For Sale by Owner	Dr. Banks
2010	Radio Free Albemuth	President Fremont
2011	Dorfman	Winston Cooke Sr.

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	The Twilight Zone	Matthew Foreman	Episode: "Quarantine"
1988	The Tracker	John 'Red Jack' Stillwell	TV Movie
1988	Jesse	Sam Maloney	TV Movie
1993	Elvis and the Colonel: The Untold Story	Vernon Presley	TV Movie
1995	Soul Survivors	Bradley Facemeyer	TV Movie
1999	The Jack Bull	Governor	TV Movie
2000	The X-Files	Reverend Orison	Episode: "Orison"
2001"2006	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Sam Braun	9 episodes
2002	Guide Season	Charlie Hurnyak	TV Movie
2003	Karen Sisco	Homer	Episode: "Dumb Bunnies"
2005	Law & Order	Ben Chaney	Episode: "Sport of Kings"
2011	Justified	Frank Reasoner	Episode: "Blaze of Glory"
2011"present	The Walking Dead	Hershel Greene	24 episodes
2011	Five	Older Bill	TV Movie
2011	Enlightened	Marv	Episode: "Someone Else's Life"

Other awards and nominations

Year	Award	Result
1968	Laurel Award for Male New Face
1998	Florida Film Festival Special Achievement Award
2007	Ralph Morgan Award