Samuel French, a Texas actor on the rise who portrayed the undercover FBI agent CJ Robinson in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, has died. He was 45.
French died Friday in a hospital in his birthplace of Waco, Texas, writer-director Paul Sinacore told The Hollywood Reporter. He had battled a cancer that spread through his body over the past couple of years.
French will be seen alongside Eric Roberts in his final film, playing a detective in Sinacore’s upcoming historical drama Towpath, set in 1964 during the civil rights movement. Watch the trailer here.
“Samuel was a dear friend and an incredible actor,” Sinacore said. “Towpath wouldn’t exist without him, and the incredible intensity he brought to the role of Det. Bernard Crooke set the tone for the entire film. Together we were on an extraordinary journey, giving everything we had to realize a shared creative vision.
“Samuel carried a fire for acting that burned in every frame — unfiltered, fearless and alive. He gave himself completely to the work, and it showed. I am deeply saddened by his loss and only wish he could have seen the final cut. He was one of a kind, and he will remain in our hearts forever.”
French played former cowboy Robinson, one of the agents involved in the 1920s in the FBI’s first major homicide case, the notorious Osage murders, in Scorsese’s 2023 epic. He shares a memorable one-on-one scene with Robert De Niro in the movie, filmed on his first day on the set.
In Waco, French attended a casting call, where he was spotted by Scorsese and hired. After his scene with De Niro, the director complimented him and added, “No one could have played Robinson as well as you did,” according to Sinacore.
French also appeared in the 2015 History channel miniseries Texas Rising and on a 2020 episode of Fear the Walking Dead, and he starred as the titular private eye in Joe Haladin: The Case of the Missing Sister (2023).
His other credits included the films Pegasus: Pony With a Broken Wing (2019), The Pro Bono Watchman (2022) and Blood Dried Hands (2024).
French was born on Jan. 26, 1980. When he was 3, he and his family moved to nearby Clifton, Texas. He graduated from high school there before living in Austin and Dallas for spells, but he “couldn’t get back to the country fast enough,” he said last year.
Survivors include his daughter, Madison, 12; his girlfriend, Melinda, the mother of their daughter; his parents, Thomas and Evelyn; and his brothers, Michael and Jonathan.
Towpath “meant the world to him,” Sinacore said. “He said it would change his career.”
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