Scott Wilson was an American film and television actor whose career spanned more than five decades and encompassed a remarkable range of roles, from a chilling real-life killer to a beloved rural patriarch. Born William Delano Wilson on March 29, 1942, in Thomasville, Georgia, he grew up in the South before eventually pursuing acting, adopting the professional name Scott Wilson. His distinctive, weathered presence and quiet intensity made him a memorable fixture in both critically acclaimed cinema and popular television.

Wilson's breakout came in 1967 when he portrayed real-life murderer Richard Hickock in In Cold Blood, the critically acclaimed adaptation of Truman Capote's nonfiction novel. The role established him as a formidable dramatic talent and set the stage for a prolific run of film work. Through the 1970s and 1980s he appeared in such films as The Grissom Gang, The New Centurions, The Great Gatsby, and The Right Stuff, while also earning international notice for his performance in the Polish film A Year of the Quiet Sun. In 1980 he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his work in The Ninth Configuration, directed by William Peter Blatty.

Wilson remained a steady presence in Hollywood across the following decades, with roles in The Exorcist III, Dead Man Walking, Shiloh and its sequels, Pride, The Way of the Gun, Pearl Harbor, The Last Samurai, Junebug, and The Host. On television, he was widely recognized for his recurring role as casino mogul Sam Braun on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. His most prominent television role, however, came as Hershel Greene on the AMC series The Walking Dead, a character he played from 2011 to 2014 and reprised in 2018. He also held a lead role on the Netflix series The OA as Abel Johnson.

Wilson was married to Heavenly Wilson. He died on October 6, 2018, leaving behind a body of work that reflected a long and respected career in American entertainment.