Angus Sampson

Angus Sampson^{[note 1]} is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his performances as Tucker in the Insidious film series, Ray Jenkins in The Mule (2014), The Organic Mechanic in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), Bear Gerhardt in the second season of Fargo, Dom Chalmers in Bump (2021-present) and Cisco in The Lincoln Lawyer (2022-present).

Angus Sampson
Sampson in 2016
Born	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupations	Actor director producer writer
Years active	1996–present

Early life

Sampson was born in Sydney, and was educated at Trinity Grammar School in Summer Hill and at The Armidale School in northern New South Wales. He graduated from the AWARD School in 2002.^[4]

Career

Acting

Sampson's acting career launched in 1996 with the role as Dylan Lewis's sidekick on Recovery,^[5] an ABC youth music show. Later television jobs include roles on The Secret Life of Us, The 10:30 Slot,^[5] and Greeks on the Roof.^[6] and as Ali in an episode of Stingers. He has appeared as a performer on the improvised show Thank God You're Here.^[5][7] In 2007, Sampson portrayed television personality Ugly Dave Gray in the television film The King^[5] which examines the life of Australian TV legend Graham Kennedy. In the same year, he also appeared in Wilfred.^[5] The following year he played Leonardo da Vinci in the children's television series Time Trackers and Michael Thorneycroft in the three final episodes of Underbelly.^[5]

In 2010, Sampson helped his friend and fellow former Recovery presenter^[8] Leigh Whannell develop a horror film called Insidious.^[9] The film was released in September 2010, with Whannell and Sampson playing "comical low-tech paranormal investigators" Specs and Tucker, roles they have reprised in the film's three follow-ups.^[9] Sampson was a special guest juror at the 2006 Melbourne International Film Festival,^[4] and host of the 2010 IF Awards, broadcast on SBS TV.^[10]

Sampson has since played a diverse array of film roles. In the same year as Insidious, he was the suit actor for the role of Bull^[5] in Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. In 2015, Sampson starred on the second season of the FX show Fargo, playing the character Bear Gerhardt. He starred as "Ozzy" in The Walking Dead. In 2022, Sampson played the lead role of Dennis "Cisco" Wojciechowski in the Netflix drama series The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the novel of the same name and written by Michael Connelly.^[11][12]

Radio

Sampson was an occasional co-host of Australian radio show Get This with Tony Martin on Triple M.^[13] Sampson was a founding member of The Forbidden Fruit, an experimental troupe whose only performance was a risque interpretation of Mad Max 2 they performed on late night radio, in which Angus played The Lord Humongous, who turned out to be quite proficient with the jazz flute.^{[citation needed]} Sampson has also been a presenter on RRR's Breakfasters program.^[14] In addition, Sampson was also the un-credited host of the cult classic late-night radio show The Lonely Hearts Club, a deadpan comedy series which ran on ABC Radio National in early 2011 in which Sampson appeared under the pseudonym Richard Silk.^[15]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Dags	Prozac
1999	Smile & Wave	Ray	Short film
2003	The Referees	Stevo	Short film
	Darkness Falls	Raymond "Ray" Winchester
	Razor Eaters	Syksey
2005	You and Your Stupid Mate	Jeffrey
2006	Kokoda	Dan
	Footy Legends	Lloydy
2007	Feeling Lonely?	Rob	Short film
	Rats and Cats	Robber
2009	The Last Supper	Judas	Short film
	The Wake	Jonathan	Short film
	Celestial Avenue	Ah Gong	Short film
	Where the Wild Things Are	The Bull Suit Performer
2010	I Love You Too	Thug
	Pop	Man	Short film
	Summer Coda	Franky Tanner
	Insidious	Tucker
	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole	Jutt (voice)	Animated feature film
2011	It's him... Terry Lim!	Director	Short documentary film[16]
	There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake	Father	Short film
	Post Apocalyptic Man	Barfly	Short film
	Tender	Max	Short film
	Teddy	Jim	Short film
	Attack	Soldier	Short film
2012	100 Bloody Acres	Lindsay Morgan
2013	Blinder	Franky
	Insidious: Chapter 2	Tucker
2014	The Mule	Ray Jenkins	Also co-writer, co-director and producer[17]
2015	Now Add Honey	Mick Croyston
	Mad Max: Fury Road	The Organic Mechanic
	Insidious: Chapter 3	Tucker
2018	Insidious: The Last Key
	Benji	Titus Weld
	Winchester	John Hansen
2021	Mortal Kombat	Goro (voice)
2023	Insidious: The Red Door	Tucker
	Next Goal Wins	Angus Bendleton
2024	Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga	The Organic Mechanic	[18]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996–2000	Recovery	Co-Host	Various episodes
2001, 2002	Blue Heelers	Glenn Rossiter / Tony Costa	2 episodes
2002	Short Cuts	DJ	Episode: "What a Feeling"
2003	Stingers	Ali	Episode: "Cul-De-Sac"
	Greeks on the Roof	Dimi	11 episodes
2004, 2005	The Secret Life of Us	Video Shop Guy / Tyrone	2 episodes
2006–2009	Thank God You're Here	Himself	11 episodes
2007	Wilfred	Cyros	Episode: "Dog Eat Dog"
	The King	Ugly Dave Gray	TV film
	Chandon Pictures	Bevan	2 episodes
2008	Underbelly	Michael Thorneycroft	3 episodes
	Time Trackers	Leonardo da Vinci	Episode: "Da Vinci"
2010	The Librarians	Xavier Fisher	4 episodes
2010–2011	Spirited	Zach Hannigan	15 episodes
2012	Beaconsfield	Brett 'Cress' Cresswell	TV film
	Howzat! Kerry Packer's War	Allan Johnston	2 episodes
	Beaconsfield	Brett 'Cress' Cresswell	TV film
2013	Paper Giants: Magazine Wars	Patrick Bowring	TV miniseries, 2 episodes
2014	Party Tricks	Wayne Duffy	6 episodes
2015	Fargo	Bear Gerhardt	9 episodes
2016–2017	Shut Eye	Fonso Marks	20 episodes
2018	Nightflyers	Rowan	Main role
	Voltron: Legendary Defender	Ranveig (voice)	Episode: "Kral Zera"
	Drunk History	Hughes	Episode: "Death"
2019	The Walking Dead	Ozzy	2 episodes
	No Activity	Chief	6 episodes
2021	The Stand	Garvey	Episode: "The House of the Dead"
	Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous	Hap (voice)	3 episodes
2021–24	Bump	Dom Chalmers	45 episodes
2022-present	The Lincoln Lawyer	Dennis 'Cisco' Wojciechowski	20 episodes
2022	Our Flag Means Death	King George	3 episodes
	Reservation Dogs	Chemist	Episode: "This is Where the Plot Thickens"
2023	Koala Man	General Peckmeister, Wizened Garbage Man and various characters	8 episodes
2024	Heartbreak High	Timothy Voss	8 episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Theatresports – The Best of 1996 Show		The Comedy Store, Petersham
2003	Mojo		The Store Room, Melbourne
2004	Happy New		The Store Room, Melbourne
2005	Playing the Victim		Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Melbourne

^[19]

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
2014	AACTA Award	Best Supporting Actor	100 Bloody Acres	Nominated[20]
	AFCA Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Nominated[21]
		Best Actor	The Mule	Nominated[22]

Notes

1. There is conflicting information regarding his birth year. Some sources claim 1979.^[1] However, articles from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that were published in 1999 have 24 listed as his age, which imply a 1974 or 1975 birth year.^[2][3]

References

1. "Angus Sampson". Shepparton News. 12 February 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019 – via PressReader.
2. Dent, Jackie (27 March 1999). "Writer put in Recovery position". The Age. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
3. Dent, Jackie (3 April 1999). "Sampson in Recovery after ABC's hairy cuts". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
4. "Angus Sampson description". Hollywood Previews. iMedia International. Archived from the original on 12 July 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
5. "Angus Sampson CV". Creative Representation. 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
6. "AAPT thinks Effie's in touch with her publics". The Age. Fairfax. 10 July 2003. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
7. Kalina, Paul (17 October 2014). "Actor Angus Sampson has thrived in Hollywood, but keeps one foot in Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
8. "Leigh Whannell: writer, actor, plumber". Inside Film. Intermedia. 30 October 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
9. Hunter, Allan (16 September 2010). "Insidious". Screen Daily. EMAP Media. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
10. Dallas, Sam (22 October 2010). "Sampson to host IF Awards". Inside Film. Intermedia. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
11. Petski, Denise (19 February 2020). "'The Lincoln Lawyer': Angus Sampson Joins Kiele Sanchez in CBS Drama Series". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
12. Andreeva, Nellie (2 February 2021). "Becki Newton Joins 'The Lincoln Lawyer', Jazz Raycole & Angus Sampson To Continue On Netflix Series". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
13. "All aboard the party bus". The Age. Fairfax. 24 August 2006. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
14. "Breakfasters". RRR FM. Libsyn. 6 August 2010. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
15. Australian Tumbleweeds
16. Angus, Sampson. "It's him... Terry Lim!". miff.com.au. Melbourne International Film Festival. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
17. Dow, Steve (26 October 2014). "What's wrong with Australian cinema?". The Guardian Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
18. Glynn, Jennifer (28 October 2022). "Anya Taylor-Joy Wraps Filming on 'Mad Max: Fury Road' Prequel 'Furiosa'". Collider. Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
19. "AusStage".
20. Tartaglione, Nancy (3 December 2013). "'The Great Gatsby', 'The Rocket' Lead Oz Academy of Cinema Award Nominations". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
21. "Nominations Announced For The 2014 Australian Film Critics Association Awards". If Magazine. 10 February 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
22. Groves, Dan (8 February 2015). "Oz critics salute The Babadook". If Magazine. Retrieved 5 October 2017.

External links

• Angus Sampson at IMDb
• Angus Sampson Creative Representation CV
• Angus Sampson on Twitter