After leaving school at the age of 16 he worked as an apprentice in Clydeside; here he became involved with the trade unionist movement.
He also joined the Anarchist movement, and participated in a number of strikes and demonstrations.
He left his apprenticeship and enrolled in the Glasgow School of Art in 1963;[1] later, after learning photography and the guitar, he began making documentary films.
[2] Samson was not a prolific artist, producing only five films over an eight-year career.
He won a BAFTA and a Peabody in 1984 for The Skin Horse, and produced a documentary on the darts player Eric Bristow entitled Arrows.