Actor Graham Greene, best known for his role in Dances With Wolves, has died at 73.
He passed away Monday 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), said in a statement to Deadline.
“You are finally free. Susan Smith is meeting you at the gates of heaven,” he added, referencing the actor’s longtime agent who died in 2013.
Born in 1952 on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Greene became a trailblazer for Indigenous actors in Hollywood. After starting out on stage, he made his television debut in 1979 on The Great Detective and his film debut four years later in Running Brave.
Greene’s breakthrough came in 1990 with Dances With Wolves, starring alongside Kevin Costner. His performance as Kicking Bird earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
He went on to star in films such as Maverick (opposite Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster), Die Hard With a Vengeance (with Bruce Willis), and The Twilight Saga: New Moon (with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson).
On television, he appeared in Murder, She Wrote, Northern Exposure, Lonesome Dove: The Series, and more recently in Disney+’s Echo, Paramount+’s Tulsa King, and Sweet Summer Pow Wow.
In a 2021 interview with Salon, Greene reflected on his career, “I tend to move along in my career and take roles that are unique and different.
“I’ve played God twice. I’ve played judges, lawyers, doctors, police officers, and detectives. The diversity of roles is what I like to play. I don’t like to be pigeonholed as one thing because you get stuck in one role.”
When asked if there were roles he still wanted to take on, he replied, “The one that pays the most money. That’s being honest.”
Greene is survived by his wife, Hilary Blackmore, and their daughter, Lilly Lazare-Greene.
Images: Instagram
