‘Dances with Wolves’ star Graham Greene dead at 73
Dances with Wolves actor Graham Greene has died aged 73 following a long illness.
In a statement, his agent, Michael Greene, told Deadline following his client’s passing, “He was a great man of morals, ethics and character and will be eternally missed. You are finally free.”
The Canadian First Nations actor earned international appraise for his appearance in the 1990 classic Dances With Wolves, landing him a nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the Academy Awards.
He was raised on a First Nations Reserve in Canada before beginning to work on stage productions in the 1970s. Until Dances With Wolves, his career was largely limited to stage shows, and appearances on Canadian television.
The movie was his opportunity to showcase his talent to a wider audience, which Greene grabbed with both hands, and also led to a number of significant Hollywood films. He later appeared in Thunderheart, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Green Mile, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and many more.
Greene, who was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015, later reflected on his career as an Indigenous actor on Q with Tom Power, sharing, “I got lucky, I just got lucky. A lot of actors that I know in the business, they had to punch and claw their way to do the stuff, and they had to work very, very hard at what they did to get where they are today. And me? I just got lucky.”
However, during an interview with the Reader’s Digest Canada in 2017, Greene expressed how being a person of First Nations origin shouldn’t define his legacy as an actor.
When asked whether it’s “important to you to tell the stories of First Nations people”, he replied, “Not particularly. I’ve played old Jewish men, New York police officers, French soldiers. I’m a fan of diverse casting. I hate that phrase, “Graham Greene, Native actor.” You don’t hear people say, ‘Denzel Washington, black actor,’ or ‘Kevin Costner, white actor.'”
Greene is survived by his wife, Hilary Blackmore, his daughter, Lilly Lazare-Greene, and his grandson, Tarl.
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