Oscar-nominated Canadian actor Graham Greene passed away at the age of 73 after breaking through memorable roles in several genres when the entertainment industry shunned Indigenous talent.
Green's management said he died Monday in Stratford, Ontario after a long illness.
The actor was born in Owen, Ontario and was originally from Six Nations Reserve, and has appeared in a stable flow of film, television and theatre projects since the late 1970s.
He was awarded an Oscar nomination for his supporter role in “Kick Bird” in the 1990 film Dance with Wolves.
Last year he won a Canadian Screen Award for performing his version in the comedy sliler seed directed by Kaniehtiio Horn.
Born in Ottawa and raised in the Mohawk Reserve, Horn says he first encountered Green's work while renting the 1991 film ClearCut from a local video store.
“He was playing this playful, bad character,” Horn told the Canadian press Sunday night. “He was one of the first roles to see a place where he could actually cheer for Indigenous characters when he enacted a revenge.”
“It was really cathartic to see so many indigenous people, especially after the Oka crisis in the early '90s,” she said.
When she later became an actor, the performance remained something to watch horns.
“You can say he enjoys himself as an actor, and that's the best thing to see because he really made it his,” Horn said.
(LR) Lindsay Allicus, Eva Thomas, Meegun Fairbrother, Kanyehatio Horn, Graham Green, Dallas Goldtooth, Leonard Farlinger and Jennifer Jonas will be attending the premiere of “Seeds” at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at the Toronto Lightbox.
Shawn Goldberg/Getty Images
Horn and Green will be working with Defiance and FX Hit Reservation Dogs from the Syfy series. By the time she was casting him as a director's debut seed, she was building what she described as a “nie-uncle” persona. Horn said he loves the crew filming scenes on the greens during the day and riffing together on set.
“It made him play and improvise…it was a bit surreal, but he made it easy for me, and I feel he wanted to do good things to me.
“Defiance” – Pilot – Photo: (LR) Julie Benz as Amanda Rosewater, Graham Green as Raffe Macquarie and Grant Bowler as Jeb Nolan.
Ben Mark Holzberg/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/Nbcuniversal via Getty Images
Horn said Green's death marked the loss of “one of the old guards,” and likened it to other veteran Indigenous actors, such as Gary Farmer and Wesstazy.
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She added that it was an inspiration for Green not allowing herself to fall into one type of role.
“Perhaps as much as they wanted him to stereotype… he never let it happen. Still, the 'native horse' role he got made him stand out and make those roles his own, just fun to just look at. ”
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“He was not only a good Indigenous actor, but a good actor who happened to be indigenous.”
Lu Diamond Phillips, a co-star on the short-lived television show Wolf Lake, said he was “sadly saddened” to hear that Green had lost social media.
“Wolf Lake” is a sci-fi drama about a pack of wolves living in human form on the small Seattle suburbs of Lake Wolf, where human loss runs high. The stars are (LR) Graham Green, Lou Diamond Phillips, Paul Wasillieuski, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Tim Matheson and Stacey Edwards.
Tony Esparzacbs via Getty Images
“From Lake Wolf to Longmire, we had a beautiful friendship. Actors. One of the most whimsical, wobbling, warmest people I've ever known. Iconic and legendary,” writes Phillips.
Green received the Governor's Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in June and was awarded the Order of Canada in 2015.
“He is a great man of moral ethics (and character) and will forever be overlooked,” his agent Michael Green said in a statement.
Green's credits also include Action Classic Die Hard: with A Vengeance, Tom Hanks Fronted Drama The Green Mile, and Western Comedy Maverick.
On stage, he appears in Venice merchants with mice and men at the Stratford Festival, and dry lips on the Thomson Highway should move to Kapskasky.
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