Born william Eugene Burrows, Jr., in Hugoton, Kansas, the son of actor/director william Eugene Burrows, Sr. (1914–1999), and Gladys Marie Wilcox (1917–1993), he took his grandmother's maiden name as his stage name to keep from being confused with another actor. His father was of Chiricahua Apache ancestry and his mother Romany. After high school he worked as a stuntman at Boot Hill in Dodge City, Kansas. From there he went on to the University of Kansas. After finishing college he was a radio host for a time before joining an acting company that took him first to Canada then New York City.