Memorial Page for Graham Greene

Graham Greene (born 22 June 1952 in Ohsweken, Ontario; died 1 September 2025 in Stratford, Ontario) was a Canadian actor. An Oneida from the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, he worked for more than fifty years, appearing in over 180 film and television productions as well as on stage for decades. International recognition came in 1990 with Dances With Wolves, in which he played Kicking Bird and for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Ohsweken

Graham Greene grew up on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, the son of John Greene, who worked as a paramedic and maintenance man, and Lillian Greene. As a young man he lived in Hamilton, Ontario. His route into acting was anything but direct: he worked as a draftsman, a steelworker and in civil technology, later as an audio technician for rock bands and in a recording studio. That he tried the stage at all came down to a fellow musician who kept urging him to audition.

The long way round

Greene began performing professionally in the theatre during the 1970s, first in Toronto and then in England. His television debut came in 1979 in an episode of The Great Detective, his first film role in 1983 in Running Brave. He later judged that first television appearance harshly, and it was precisely that judgement which prompted him to learn acting properly, as a craft. The attitude runs through his whole body of work: he earned his parts rather than waiting for them.

Kicking Bird

In 1990 Kevin Costner cast him in Dances With Wolves as Kicking Bird, the Lakota medicine man. The role brought him to audiences far beyond Canada and led to the 1991 Academy Award nomination. Greene spoke openly about how hard he found the Lakota language: he had not grown up speaking an Indigenous language, and its structure was entirely foreign to English or French. The remark says a good deal about him. He named the effort rather than claiming an ease that was not there.

A face people knew

For decades afterwards Greene appeared in roles many viewers remember without always attaching a name to them. He played the tribal policeman Walter Crow Horse in Thunderheart (1992), appeared opposite Mel Gibson in Maverick (1994), was Detective Joe Lambert in Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and Arlen Bitterbuck in The Green Mile (1999). Later came Transamerica (2005), Molly's Game and Wind River (2017).

Television kept him just as busy: the shaman Leonard Quinhagak in Northern Exposure, the explosives-loving Edgar "K. B." Montrose on The Red Green Show, and Malachi Strand on Longmire from 2012 to 2017. The work did not slow in his final decade either: 1883 (2022), Reservation Dogs and The Last of Us (2023), Echo (2024) and, last of all, two 2025 episodes of The Lowdown.

The stage remained

For all the film work, Greene never gave up the theatre. He returned repeatedly to Native Earth Performing Arts; for Pierre St. Pierre in Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing he won the 1989 Dora Mavor Moore Award for outstanding performance in a leading role. In 2007 he played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Lennie in Of Mice and Men at the Stratford Festival — two of the most demanding parts in the repertoire.

A line he drew himself

Greene often played Indigenous roles, and he expressly did not regard himself as a representative or spokesman for the Indigenous community. What he did want for the portrayal of his people he said plainly: more than stoic figures. "My people are very funny," was how he put it. California never appealed to him; he saw no reason to move as long as a working actor could live anywhere with a telephone and a route to the airport. He lived outside Toronto with his wife, Hilary Blackmore.

Honours

• 1989 Dora Mavor Moore Award, outstanding performance in a leading role, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing
• 1991 Academy Award nomination, Best Supporting Actor, Dances With Wolves
• 1994 Gemini Award for The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon
• 1997 National Aboriginal Achievement Award
• 2000 Grammy Award for the album Listen to the Storyteller (Best Spoken Word Album for Children)
• 2004 Earle Grey Award at the Gemini Awards, for lifetime achievement
• 2008 Honorary doctorate of law, Wilfrid Laurier University
• 2015 Member of the Order of Canada
• 2025 Governor General's Performing Arts Award

Farewell

Graham Greene died on 1 September 2025 after a long illness, at the age of 73, in Stratford, Ontario — the town on whose festival stage he had played Shylock eighteen years earlier. In that same year he had been named a recipient of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts. What remains is a body of work spanning more than fifty years, and the memory of an actor who never had to announce the weight of his roles.