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Graham Greene, the esteemed actor who was Oscar-nominated for his work in “Dances with Wolves,” has died at 73 after a long illness.
THR confirmed the actor passed away Monday in Stratford, Ontario.
Greene was renowned for his supporting work as Kicking Bird in Kevin Costner’s revisionist-western epic, which took the Best Picture Oscar.
Born June 22, 1952, in Ohsweken on the Six Nations Reserve in Canada, Greene participated in the Centre for Indigenous Theater Program and worked on the stage ahead of a 1979 TV debut.
“When I first started out in the business, it was this very strange thing — they’d hand you the script where you had to speak the way they thought native people spoke, and in order to get my foot in the door a little further, I did it. I went along with it for a while,” he said in a 2022 interview, speaking about how he was treated as an indigenous person in Hollywood.
Cultural insensitivity aside, he wasn’t too impressed with his own work on that first series he did, “The Great Detective,” deciding to redouble his efforts to learn how to act.
His first film was the acclaimed “Running Brave” (1983), and his career exploded with his Oscar nomination in 1991. At the time of his death, he had more than 200 credits to his name — on TV, in films, and on the stage.
Among his most famous films were “Thunderheart” (1992), “Maverick” (1994), “North” (1994), “Die Hard with a Vengeance” (1995), “The Green Mile” (1999), “Skins” (2002), “Transamerica” (2005), and “Molly’s Game” (2017).
On TV, he was recently on “Tulsa King” (2024).
The Grammy winner was honored with the Order of Canada and the Governor General’s Award.