The first time I saw Graham Greene on the silver screen was in the 1990 Kevin Costner film “Dances With Wolves.” It was a lovely film to watch, with the kind of vast sweeping scenery that Costner likes to use in his Western films. Mr. Greene starred as the Dakota (Sioux) shaman Kicking Bird, and Greene received an Academy Award nomination for the role. Greene was a member of the Oneida tribe of Canada and was born and raised on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. He appeared in a lot of television and motion pictures, but before that, Mr. Greene was a carpenter, welder, and electrician.
Now, Graham Greene has sadly passed away, aged 73.
Graham Greene, a trailblazing Indigenous actor whose long and successful career on the big and small screen included an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Kicking Bird in “Dances with Wolves,” has died. He was 73.
Greene died Monday in Stratford, Ontario, after a long battle with “a lengthy illness,” Greene’s agent Michael Greene wrote in a statement provided to The Associated Press.
“He was a great man of morals ethics, character and will be eternally missed,” he wrote. “God bless you. You are finally free.”
Born in June 1952 in Ohsweken, Ontario, on Canada’s Six Nations Reserve, Greene worked as a draftsman, high steelworker, welder and carpenter before becoming an actor in the 1970s, beginning with the 1979 Canadian drama series “The Great Detective” and 1983 film “Running Brave.”
His fellow Canadian Native and actor Kaniehtiio Horn, best known for her portrayal of “Tanis” on the Canadian CraveTV hit show “Letterkenny,” took to her Instagram account to recall her first meeting with Mr. Greene:
I said “hey I’m Kaniehtiio, I’m Mohawk from Kahnawake. I just need to tell you how much me and my family loved you in Clearcut, I watched it so many times as a kid.”
“Whoa, that’s pretty dark.” He said and chuckled. I think he dug that I was straight up with him and his stardom didn’t make me act all weird. I remember thinking it was so cool that he blasted classical music in his trailer.
We reached out to each other on email over the years. He let me call him Uncle G and I didn’t have any real family or older people looking out for me so that meant a lot.
Graham Greene has a long and interesting career.
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One of my favorite parts, though, was on the Canadian comedy “The Red Green Show,” wherein he played the explosives “expert,” Edgar Montrose. For the part, he always wore tattered coveralls, a yellow vest, and tattered gauntlets; he frequently had smoke emitting from somewhere on his person, spoke in a near shout, and when listening, generally held a hand up to his ears. He was a master of the deferential self-reference. Steve Smith, who portrayed the title character Red Green, described how Graham Greene approached him about being in the show:
Steve Smith mentioned on the Stuffed And Mounted DVD intros that Graham Greene became a fan of the Red Green Show after seeing it at an airport. When Greene met Smith at the Gemini Awards, he asked if he could appear on the show, leading Smith to create the Edgar Montrose character for him.
Rest well, Mr. Green. Ó:nʌ ki’wah. The world is a poorer place for your absence.
