Dances with Wolves icon Graham Greene has died at the age of 73 after a long illness.
The well-known actor, who was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his role as Kicking Bird in the 1990 Kevin Costner epic, died in a Toronto hospital on Monday.
His representative told Deadline : “He was a man of great morals, ethics and character, and he will be forever missed.
“You are finally free. Susan Smith meets you at heaven’s gates,” he added, referring to the actor’s longtime agent, who died in 2013.
Greene was known as an actor who raised the profile of Indigenous actors in Hollywood.
He married his wife, Hilary Blackmore, in 1990, and the couple shared four children.
Dances with Wolves icon Graham Greene has died aged 73 after a long illness – pictured in 2022
The acclaimed actor, who was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his role as Kicking Bird in the 1990 Kevin Costner epic, died in a Toronto hospital on Monday.
Greene played Marlon in The Last of Us 2023
Greene, who was of Oneida First Nation and Canadian descent, was born on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario and worked as a welder, draftsman and steelworker before acting.
His television debut came in an episode of Big Detective in 1979, followed by his film debut in 1983’s “Running Brave.”
He shot to worldwide fame in Dances with Wolves as Sioux Medicine Man Kicking Bird – which Costner directed and starred in as Lieutenant John J. Dunbar.
In a previous interview with Cinemoovie, Grēna revealed that he was thrown from a horse during production and joked that he wanted to get a refund for the animal rather than take a break from filming.
He added that he struggled to learn to speak the Lakota language, saying, “I couldn’t understand how they ordered their language. Its structure is completely foreign to English or French.”
He would later show his acting chops when he appeared on the comedy show The Red Green as Edgar “KB” Montrose.
When asked what he thought of Dances with Wolves, he retorted: ‘The local guy [Kicking Bird] was ok. Should have gotten an Oscar. But the rest of it was a yawn!’
He shot to worldwide fame as the Sioux Medicine Man in Dances with Wolves – which Costner directed and starred in as Lieutenant John J. Dunbar.
Greene was known as an actor who raised the profile of Indigenous actors in Hollywood – pictured in 2002
In 1999, he played Death Row inmate Arlen Bitterbuck alongside Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan.
Bitterbuck was a Native American who was found guilty of killing another man during an extremely violent bar fight over a pair of boots.
Greene also starred in the Oscar-nominated Felicity Huffman film Transamerica in 2005, as well as 2009’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
His television appearances include Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King and The Last of Us.
