BEST ACTOR: Graham Greene (his background)

Graham Greene wasn't supposed to make it. A reserve kid from Six Nations who dropped out at 14 and spent 15 years welding steel and laying carpet before he ever stepped on a stage. In 1990, Kevin Costner cast him as Kicking Bird in Dances with Wolves — a role that required him to study Lakota 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, in a language that wasn't his. That performance earned him an Oscar nomination, making him only the second indigenous actor in history nominated for Best Supporting Actor. But Hollywood didn't roll out the red carpet. Directors told him his race disqualified him from roles. Casting directors handed him scripts where he was expected to grunt and look stoic. He told one director about his four dead uncles who served on submarines in the Pacific — and never flinched.  Graham Greene went on to log over 180 film and television credits, from Thunderheart to Die Hard with a Vengeance to The Green Mile to Wind River. He won a Grammy, earned the Order of Canada, starred at the Stratford Festival, and closed out his career alongside Wes Studi and Gary Farmer in Reservation Dogs. He passed peacefully in Stratford, Ontario on September 1, 2025, at 73 years old. 

This is the story of a man who refused to vanish.