Tributes continue to pour in for Canadian Indigenous actor Graham Greene. He died Monday of natural causes. He was 73. Greene has been called a trailblazer and a First Nations icon. He had more than 200 films and television appearances to his credit, but he is often remembered for his iconic role in the film Dances With Wolves, starring Kevin Costner. Many describe his career as groundbreaking and paving the way for future Indigenous actors.
Greene was Oneida from the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. Before his time on the silver screen, he was a welder, a steel worker and a roadie for traveling rock and country musicians. Greene said he stumbled into acting as a profession. He said he didn’t love it, and it took a while to get used to it.
“The discipline, I suppose, which I’ve always told young actors, like if you’re gonna be an actor, spend at least one year in theatre,” Greene said. “Teaching discipline instead of coming out. Learn your lines. Do what you’re supposed to be doing. You’re not being paid to go to disco, fart around at night clubs all night and come back half drunk in the morning and try to go to work cause you can’t do that.”
Among those who paid tribute to Greene’s work is actor Kevin Costner, who described him as a master at work and a wonderful human being. It was for the film Dances With Wolves, with Kevin Costner, that Greene was nominated for an Academy Award. Costner posted one of his favourite scenes from the movie, where Greene played the part of Kicking Bird, a Lakota medicine man.
The movie turned out to be Greene’s big break, and he wasn’t going to look back. Tom Jackson is a fellow Indigenous actor, and a longtime friend of the Oscar nominee. He remembers Greene and said it makes him smile.
“Every time I think of Graham it makes me smile. I know it’s a sad occasion but at the same time it’s a celebration,” Jackson said. “In the last 24 hours I’ve been given the blessing of seeing and hearing a Graham in my mind and in my memories of having his friendship.”
His work in Dances with Wolves led to a series of roles in movies and television. Lindsay Monture is the artistic director of the Imaginative Film Festival, and hails from the same territory as Greene did. She said he became an important role model for indigenous actors.
“I think that to our people it didn’t really matter if he was, you know, a sidekick or supporting role, like his presence was so huge on screen that it didn’t really matter, he was just that great,” Monture said.
Critics, friends and colleagues said Greene paved the way for Indigenous actors. Jackson said things were different before Greene made his presence felt.
“At the time, a lot of Indigenous parts were played by nonindigenous actors. Graham turned that around,” Jackson said. “He brought that door and opened it. We were trapped for a long time behind that door. Graham unlocked that door. But it didn’t just unlock the door to the stage, it unlocked the door to paradise.”
The Stratford Festival in Ontario also paid tribute to Greene, who played Shylock in the 2007 production of The Merchant of Venice and Lennie in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. In addition to his Oscar nomination, Greene won a Grammy Award, a Gemini Award and a Canadian Screen Award. Greene also received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Governor General May Simon said he brought dignity to every character he portrayed, breaking barriers and opening doors. She adds that Greene’s extraordinary contributions to Canadian culture leave a lasting legacy that resonates around the country and beyond.
