Oscar-nominated actor Graham Greene dead at 73

Oscar-nominated actor Graham Greene died Monday in Stratford, Ont., at the age of 73, his manager has confirmed to CBC News. 

“It is with deep sadness we announce the peaceful passing of award-winning legendary Canadian actor Graham Greene,” Gerry Jordan said. 

The Oneida actor from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario was best known for film roles such as Kicking Bird, a Sioux medicine man, in 1990’s Dances with Wolves, which earned him an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. He was also in The Green Mile with Tom Hanks in 1999 and The Twilight Saga: New Moon in 2009.

On television, he had roles in Northern Exposure in the 1990s, and more recently as a guest star in Reservation Dogs and The Last of Us. 

He told CBC Q‘s Tom Power earlier this year that he got his first acting opportunity when he was working as a roadie, and someone asked him if he’d ever considered acting.

Decorated career on stage and screen

Even though he said he knew nothing about the theatre — or even what a script looked like, he said — he gave it a try. And he loved it. 

“I changed into the costume and they put me in the shade in a nice chair,” he said. “They brought me food and water … and I thought, ‘Jeez, I’m living the life of a dog! This is great. I don’t have to carry anybody’s amplifiers anymore. I don’t have to do lights. I don’t have to drive halfway across the country for nothing.'”

Overall, Greene won two Gemini Awards, a Canadian Screen Award for his role in Seeds, a Grammy Award (for best spoken word album for children for Listen to the Storyteller), and in 2025, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.  

“That was a major coup. I thought, ‘Wow, why me?’ ” he said on Q. “It means a lot to be recognized in my own country.” 

Greene was also a member of the Order of Canada. 

‘He was a best friend to me’

Fellow actor Tom Jackson said Greene was a friend and brother to him.

“I never spent enough time enjoying Graham’s company,” he told CBC News Monday evening from Tantallon, N.S. “I wasn’t necessarily a best friend to him, but he was a best friend to me.”

WATCH | Tom Jackson remembers his friend, Graham Greene: 

Graham Greene, Dances with Wolves actor, dead at 73 | Hanomansing Tonight

Oscar-nominated Dances with Wolves actor Graham Greene has died at the age of 73. Greene’s manager confirmed his passing on Monday, saying he died peacefully at his home in Stratford, Ont.

Jackson co-starred with Greene in the TV movie Medicine River and in the TV series Spirit Bay. He said Greene did whatever it took to be in show business: he would run sound, build sets, be stage manager — believing that to be in show business, you had to be the business.

“And he was. He was an epitome of the business,” Jackson said. “It’s an honour to be able to speak about Graham.”

‘An epic loss for so many’

Greene was in heady company at the 1991 Academy Awards, nominated in the supporting actor category alongside Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Bruce Davison and Joe Pesci, who would win for Goodfellas.

He went on to play dozens of roles on stage and on screen in a career that spanned almost five decades, from major motion pictures like Thunderheart, Maverick and Die Hard With a Vengeance, to a range of work on Canadian productions, including comedy The Red Greene Show, children’s program The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon and as narrator-host of Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science.

“Today we lost a great one,” Indigenous filmmaker and actor Jennifer Podemski said in a social media post.

“I feel so lucky to have known him. An epic loss for so many,” she added.

Actor Lou Diamond Phillips said in a social media post he was “heartbroken” to learn of Greene’s death.

“From Wolf Lake to Longmire, we had a beautiful friendship,” said Phillips. “An Actor’s Actor. One of the wittiest, wiliest, warmest people I’ve ever known. Iconic and Legendary.”

Greene’s manager told CBC News the actor died of natural causes, and that details regarding a remembrance celebration will be shared in the coming days.