He had more than 50 film credits, including In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Great Gatsby, Dead Man Walking, Pearl Harbor, and Junebug.

[2] In 1980, Wilson received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his role in William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration.

His follow-up role, in the same year, was in the film version of In Cold Blood, based on the book of the same name by Truman Capote.

[4] Wilson portrayed 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.

[3] 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.

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.

[3][4] Wilson's 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.

[5] 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.

[6] Wilson and his wife, Heavenly, were married from 1977[11][12][13] until his death from leukemia at his home in Los Angeles, on October 6, 2018, at the age of 76.