Bye Bye Kicking Bird

Just a few nights ago, I was watching screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s highly entertaining directorial debut, Molly’s Game. Anyone familiar with Sorkin’s writing style will recognize the wordy, staccato rhythms of his dialogue. His words for his actors are a true form of verse. People don’t really speak that way, but it is certainly enjoyable to watch them chatter in Sorkin’s way in movies. In the latter part of the film, when Idris Elba’s defense attorney is defending Jessica Chastain’s title character, who is charged with a RICO violation before a judge, that judge is played by Graham Greene. While almost everyone else in the film complies with Sorkin’s highly stylized manner of speaking, Greene’s judge does not. 

The role of Judge Foxman is not much more than a cameo, but in his few moments on screen, Greene does something entirely different than just about any other actor (except maybe Kevin Costner as Molly’s father)—he slows down the pacing of Sorkin’s verbiage. He takes Sorkin’s language and makes it sound like the way real people speak. Sure, those words are still wittier than the average bird uses, but Greene’s well-paced delivery convinces us that his character, Judge Foxman, really does speak this way. He comes off as both normal and uncommonly eloquent. 

It occurred to me then that one could say that about Greene’s entire career in front of a camera—he made every word sound like the truth as his character understood it. 

Graham Greene was born on the Six Nations Reserve in Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Oneida tribe. Before coming to acting, he was employed as a welder, a draftsman, a steelworker, and an audio technician at rock concerts. He began acting on the stage in Toronto in the mid-seventies. By 1979, he had his first guest spot on television, and in 1983, his first small part in a film. 

As an indigenous person, acting opportunities were often scarce or stereotypical, but he kept hacking away at his profession until he got his big break as “Kicking Bird” in Kevin Costner’s Best Picture-winning directorial debut, Dances With Wolves. While many historians see Costner’s film as an example of the pervasive “white savior” motif far too common in movies depicting Native Americans, almost no one takes issue with Greene’s performance as a Lakota medicine man and tribal elder. That’s probably because Greene was so effortless in his portrayal. 

To be fair (if not generous) to Dances With Wolves, it can be reasonably argued that the Lakota tribe does far more for Costner’s post-Civil War soldier, Lieutenant Dunbar, than Dunbar does for the Lakota. While Costner’s white man is at the center of the story, the film goes to great lengths to be authentic. Much of the on-screen dialogue is spoken in Lakota, with subtitles, and when Dunbar leaves the tribe, it’s clear that the Lakota way of life has very little trail ahead of it. 

One need only look into Greene’s eyes to see the dignified reticence of a man who knows what is to come. The trail of tears and broken treaties will follow. Even so, as grim as that truth may be, Greene’s “Kicking Bird” quietly becomes the heart of a film that would go on to gross over $400 million, receive eleven Oscar Nominations, and win seven little gold men (1991). Greene was among the eleven nominations the film received, in the category of Best Supporting Actor. While he may not have been among the film’s seven winners, Greene was the second indigenous North American to be recognized by the Academy with a nomination (Chief Dan George was the first, for Supporting Actor in Little Big Man in 1971). 

It’s no surprise that Greene never reached such heights again. He was a trailblazer, and trailblazers make a path for others more than they do so for themselves. Still, it’s fair to say that without the success of Greene and Dances With Wolves, shows like Reservation Dogs, Dark Winds, and films like Prey and Killers of the Flower Moon would be less likely to exist on the timeline that they were produced. 

That’s not to say that Greene had no notable successes after Dances With Wolves. Greene would be seen in several worthy productions on television and film post-Dances, including Northern Exposure, Thunderheart, Maverick, Die Hard With a Vengeance, The Green Mile, Skins, Transamerica, Wind River, Longmire, Goliath, Reservation Dogs, and the aforementioned Molly’s Game, just to name a few. Hell, he even came out of two Twilight films unscathed and unblemished: no easy feat, that. 

None of these roles may have been on the level of “Kicking Bird,” but all were significant in terms of representation, showcasing that no matter how small the role, Greene would always make a project better. Today, I was reminded that in Die Hard With a Vengeance, Greene just played a cop, and his indigenous roots played no part in his character. Much like Wes Studi’s policeman in HEAT, that kind of representation matters too. 

As the cliché goes, some people have to walk so that others can run. Graham Greene walked, but he ran some too.

Graham Greene died on September 1, 2025. He was 73 years old.