Graham Greene, the Canadian actor celebrated for his powerful performances in Dances With Wolves, The Green Mile, and numerous other films, has died at the age of 73.
Gatekeepers News reports that Greene passed away peacefully on Monday at a hospital in Toronto.
“He was a great man of morals, ethics and character and will be eternally missed,” his agent said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “You are finally free.”
While some reports attribute his death to natural causes, others indicate he had faced a prolonged illness.
Greene’s path to acting was unconventional. Before rising to international acclaim, he worked as a draftsman, steelworker, and even a rock band crew member. He discovered his love for acting in UK theatre during the 1970s, a passion that eventually propelled him to Hollywood.
His breakout role came in 1990 as Kicking Bird, a Lakota holy man, in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning Western Dances With Wolves. The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and widespread recognition.
A proud member of the Oneida Nation of the Six Nations Reserve in southern Ontario, Greene became a trailblazer for Indigenous representation in Hollywood, known for bringing dignity, depth, and wry humor to his roles.
He starred in Thunderheart (1992) as tribal police officer Walter Crow Horse, and in The Green Mile (1999) as Arlen Bitterbuck, a Native American man on death row. His versatile career also spanned blockbusters such as Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995), Maverick (1994), The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), and Wind River (2017).
Greene’s contributions to film and television earned him several honors, including the Earle Grey Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Canadian Academy of Film and Television in 2004. In 2016, he was appointed to the Order of Canada, the country’s second-highest civilian honor.
