The trailblazing Canadian First Nations actor, who was nominated for an Academy Award, died in Toronto after a long illness
Graham Greene, the prolific Oscar-nominated Canadian First Nations actor and Hollywood trailblazer, has died aged 73 in a Toronto hospital after a long illness.
“He was a great man of morals, ethics and character and will be eternally missed,” Greene’s agent, Michael Greene (no relation), told Deadline. “You are finally free.”
Greene was born in 1952 in Ohsweken, on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada. He fell into acting while working as a recording engineer, after a friend persuaded him to read his script. He started on stage, performing in Canadian and English productions in the 1970s, before making his screen debut in 1979 in an episode of the Canadian drama The Great Detective. His first film role was in the 1983 biopic Running Brave.
Greene’s Hollywood breakthrough came when Kevin Costner cast him as real-life Lakota Sioux medicine man Kicking Bird (Ziŋtká Nagwáka) in his Academy Award-winning 1990 western Dances with Wolves. Greene’s performance landed him an Academy Award nomination and launched his Hollywood career, which included roles in Thunderheart (1992), Maverick (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), The Green Mile (1999) and The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009).
