In Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Dr. King Schultz becomes Django’s bounty-hunting partner.
Schultz is a former dentist who now works as a bounty hunter in the American South. He frees Django early in the film because Django can identify the Brittle brothers, fugitives Schultz is pursuing. Their partnership then develops into a wider plan to find and rescue Django’s wife, Broomhilda.
Christoph Waltz played Schultz, earning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the performance. The character combines the outward manners of a European doctor with the practical skills and moral independence of a bounty hunter.
The first name is King, not William or Samuel. The unusual name is important because the film repeatedly presents Schultz as both a professional man and an unconventional ally in Django’s quest for freedom.