He was one of those guys where few knew his name but everybody knew that face.

Graham Greene. He died this week, an actor who was honored for Dances with Wolves and made his mark in a number of other movies.

I interviewed Greene long ago when he made an interesting movie called Thunderheart. The star was Val Kilmer. Greene, a Canadian native Indian, played the Indian cop in the murder mystery set in the southwest.

As I read the story I wrote about him I remembered he was quite reserved, taciturn almost, always polite. Sort of like many of the roles he played.

When some journalists started downplaying Wolves as compared to Thunderheart in its depiction of Indians, he gave a pushback on criticizing Wolves. “There is nothing wrong with a good romantic story” he said.

And when journalists pressed to make a lot of Indian treatment in Thunderheart, he gently resisted and said it is a “nice little mystery.”

He did have his low key limits though when asked about the treatment of Indians in North America.

I was never privileged to learn my heritage” he said of his Oneida tribe. “The old ways were purposely ignored when I was growing up. I am rediscovering who I am and what I am.”

I concluded with his explanation on his even keel.
We as native people believe if you’ve got nothing else, keep the humor.”

As I wrote this I looked for interviews where he might have been more outspoken. No go.

What I did find was when he was pressed about the challenges of acting he said what better job is there than having them put you up in trailer, feed you, take you to a set, bring you back to a trailer and feed you again.

I think he was a man most comfortable in his own skin, and we are lucky he shared time with us on his many screen appearances.