Legendary ‘Dances With Wolves’ Star Graham Greene Passes Away At 73, Leaving Iconic Legacy

Cinema is also grieving the death of the star and Oscar-nominated Canadian actor, Graham Greene, who died the 1st of September 2025, aged 73.  Greene died in one of the Toronto hospitals after many years of sickness. His agent Michael Greene said he was a great man of morals, ethics and character who would be eternally missed.

Greene was an actor of Oneida descent and the first to portray a true and worthy appearance of an Indigenous actor in Hollywood. Over four decades his career made a permanent mark upon the big and small screens, with his memorable act, and silent, strong manner. His death comes as a great loss to the world film and television fraternity.

A Legacy of Landmark Roles

Graham Greene had a sequence of strong and notable roles in his career. The best known of his roles was his nomination at the Academy Award supporting actors as the sage medicine man, Kicking Bird, in the 1990 epic, Dances with Wolves, directed by Kevin Costner. The role led him to international fame and established his reputation as a great talent. Other than this landmark film, Greene has always performed very well in a wide variety of projects. 

He made audiences jump as the sympathetic death row inmate Arlen Bitterbuck in The Green Mile and as the street detective Joe Lambert in Die Hard with a Vengeance. His ability and versatility were confirmed by his new exposure to high-rated television programs such as The Last of Us on HBO and Reservation Dogs by Taika Waititi. Another great contribution to Greene being a very unique and popular star in the industry was his ability to create very complex characters which were real and human.

Honors and Accolades

During his prestigious career, Greene was awarded many awards that awarded his work in art. Along with his Oscar nomination, he received many other great prizes, such as Grammy, Gemini, and Canadian Screen awards. A little short of a year prior to his death, in June 2025, he received the Governor General Performing Arts Award, Lifetime Artistic Achievement, the highest performing arts award in Canada.

He is also a Member of the Order of Canada (appointed in 2015). These awards are simply used to demonstrate how gifted he was, and the roles he has played in the entertainment industry particularly as an Indigenous representative on screen. He will be remembered not just due to the impressive performances that he has delivered, but also due to the fact that he has opened the way to a new generation of Indigenous actors.

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