Potter grew up in Bingham, Maine, and served with the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

[4] In Texas, Potter was discovered by a talent scout, and appeared in several Western movies by Monogram Pictures in the late 1940s as a singing cowboy.

[8] While living in Houston, he worked as a deputy sheriff in Harris County for approximately three years.

[11] In August 1957, Potter was the winning contestant on an episode of Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, singing a western ballad.

[12][13] From February to May 1958, KPLC-TV in Lake Charles, Louisiana, broadcast the Bill Potter Show on an intermittent basis.