Graham Greene, trailblazing star of Dances With Wolves, dies aged 73

Graham Greene, the trailblazing First Nations actor who starred in Dances with Wolves, has died in a Canadian hospital aged 73 after a battle with an undisclosed illness.

Greene was best known for his work in blockbusters, including 1990 Western Dances with Wolves, which won him an Oscar nod and propelled his Hollywood acting career.

He was born in 1952 in Ohsweken, on the Six Nations Reserve, in Ontario, Canada.

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He fell into acting after his friend convinced him to read a script while Greene was working as a recording engineer.

From there, he moved to acting in stage performances in the 1970s, before getting his big break after Kevin Costner cast him as Kicking Bird, a Lakota Sioux medicine man, in Dances with Wolves.

After that, he starred in several Hollywood films, including Thunderheart (1992), Maverick (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), The Green Mile (1999) and The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009).

He recently starred in Reservation Dogs, an FX series by Taika Waititi, as well as The Last of US and Tulsa King.

The trialblazer spoke on his career in a 2024 interview for Canada's Theatre Museum, saying when he first started acting in Hollywood, native characters were expected to behave a certain way.

"When I first started out in the business, it was a very strange thing where they'd hand you the script where you had to speak the way they thought native people spoke," he said at the time.

"And in order to get my foot in the door a little further, I did it. I went along with it for a while, you gotta look stoic, don't smile…you gotta grunt a lot.

"I don't know anybody who behaves like that. Native people have an incredible sense of humour.

"And that's what I said to Kevin [Costner]... I said the people in this film [Dances with Wolves], in this village, they have an incredible family, incredible relationship and fun has always been part of that.

"Fun is 50 per cent of how they live and enjoy things. Family is family, no matter what."

His portrayal of Native Americans moved away from the "stoic" stereotypical and shallow characters that had become so common in Hollywood, and instead portrayed indigenous people in a real way – with depth, humour and dignity.

His successful career made him one of the most recognisable Indigenous actors in the world, making him one of the first native actors to achieve such widespread recognition.

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He died in a Toronto Hospital aged 73 after a long illness.

Greene won many awards throughout his career, including a Grammy, a Gemini and Canadian Screen awards.

He is survived by his daughter, Lilly Lazare-Greene, grandson Tarlo and wife Hilary Blackmore.

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