Native American Actors
Of note, Iron Eyes Cody claimed to be but was in fact not.
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1.
Russell Means
Actor, The Last of the Mohicans
Russell Means was born an Oglala/Lakota Sioux Indian. He was the first national director of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in which role he became prominent during the 1973 standoff with the U.S. government at Wounded Knee. In 1987, he joined the U.S. Libertarian Party and announced his candidacy for the party's presidential nomination...
3.
Wes Studi
Actor, Avatar
Native Oklahoman, Vietnam veteran, sculptor, musician, author, activist. Each of those describes the legendary actor Wes Studi. Within a few years of his arrival in Hollywood, Studi caught the attention of the public in Dances with Wolves. In 1992, his powerful performance as "Magua" in The Last of the Mohicans established him as one of the most compelling actors in the business...
4.
Steve Reevis
Actor, Fargo
Steve was born and raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana. Son of Curley and Lila Reevis, he is the 4th of 6 siblings. He graduated from Flandreau High School and attended Haskell Indian Junior College in Lawrence, Kansas where he received a degree in arts. After junior college, he left the reservation in Montana to try to begin an acting career in Los Angeles...
5.
Adam Beach
Actor, Flags of Our Fathers
Handsome Canadian Saulteaux actor Adam Beach was raised on the Dog Creek First Nations Reserve with his two brothers. A troubled childhood saw his mother killed by a drunk driver, and his alcoholic father drowned only weeks afterward. The three brothers went to live with their grandmother and then with their uncle and aunt in Winnipeg...
7.
Rodney A. Grant
Actor, Dances with Wolves
Native American actor, Rodney Arnold Grant was born the 9th of March, 1959. After his biological parents abandoned him, his grandparents raised him from 6 months of age, up until 1982. Rodney has three daughters, two of which reside with their mother. He is now married to Lee-Anne, and they have a son...
11.
Gordon Tootoosis
Actor, Legends of the Fall
A Canadian actor of Cree and Stoney descent, Gordon Tootosis made his film debut in the western film Alien Thunder with Donald Sutherland and Chief Dan George. Tootoosis holds several acting roles in television and movies, including the role of 'One Stab' in Legends of the Fall, the role of 'Growling Bear'...
13.
Jay Silverheels
Actor, The Lone Ranger
Jay Silverheels was born on a reservation in Canada to a Mohawk chief. He was a star lacrosse player and a boxer before he entered films as a stuntman in 1938. He worked in a number of films though the 1940s before he gained some notice as the Osceola brother in Humphrey Bogart's film Key Largo...
16.
Gary Farmer
Actor, Dead Man
Gary Dale Farmer is an American character actor with plenty of character. With over 100 Film and TV appearances attached to his resume, and plenty more in the pipeline, Gary has shown he can adapt easily to any genre when necessary. He was born in Ohsweken, Ontario, into the Cayuga nation and Wolf Clan...
17.
John Trudell
Self, Incident at Oglala
John Trudell was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a Santee Sioux father and Mexican Indian mother. After a stint in the Navy (and Vietnam) from 1963 to 1969, he became involved with the American Indian Movement, becoming National Chairman in 1973. He held that position until 1979; it was then that his wife Tina...
18.
Chief Thundercloud
Actor, King of the Stallions
Victor Daniels was given the title of "Chief" in an honorary capacity, although he was indeed a true Native American Indian. Born in the Muskogee region of Oklahoma on April 12, 1899, he was the first of nine children born to Dark Cloud and Morning Star, who were Cherokee mixed with Scottish, Irish and German...
19.
Robert Beltran
Actor, Night of the Comet
Robert Adame Beltran was born in Bakersfield, California. He is the seventh of ten children, of Mexican-Native American ancestry, though Robert describes his heritage as Latindio. After finishing high school, he attended Fresno State College, where he graduated with a degree in theater arts. Beltran landed his first film role in Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit in 1981...
21.
Austin St. John
Actor, Day of the Dumpster
Austin St. John was born on September 17th, 1975, in Roswell, New Mexico, to his parents Steve and Sharon St. John, becoming brother to Stephen. Austin has been practicing martial arts since he was five and now holds a second-degree black belt in Tae-Kwon Do, a first-degree black belt in Judo, and he also practices Shenkito and Kenpo...
“ Largely a mutt though ” - pghopper
22.
Will Sampson
A Native American actor of the Creek Nation, Sampson's "big break" came from his memorable role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest opposite Jack Nicholson. He was also starred opposite Clint Eastwood in the western The Outlaw Josey Wales. He had supporting roles in Orca, The White Buffalo and Fish Hawk. In 1986...
23.
Johnny Depp
Actor, Edward Scissorhands
Born John Christopher Depp in Owensboro, Kentucky, on June 9, 1963, Johnny Depp was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school at age 15 in the hopes of becoming a rock musician. He fronted a series of garage bands including The Kids, which once opened for Iggy Pop. Depp got into acting after a visit to Los Angeles...
“ Not fully but I think he is part, if I am wrong I will remove him. ” - pghopper
25.
Eartha Kitt
Actress, The Emperor's New Groove
An out-of-wedlock child, Eartha Kitt was born in the cotton fields of South Carolina, a pregnancy resulting from the rape by a white plantation owner and a sharecropper mother of African-American and Cherokee Native American descent. Given away by her mother, she arrived in Harlem at age nine, and at age 15...
“ Part Cherokee ” - pghopper
26.
Chief Dan George
Actor, The Outlaw Josey Wales
Chief Dan George was born with the names Geswanouth Slahoot (which was anglicized as Dan Slaholt) to a tribal chief on Burrard Indian Reserve No. 3 in North Vancouver. His last name was changed to George when he entered a mission boarding school at the age of 5, where the use of his native language was discouraged, if not forbidden...
27.
Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman
Actor, Dances with Wolves
A renowned American Indian activist-singer-songwriter.
30.
Benjamin Bratt
Actor, Miss Congeniality
The middle of five children, Bratt hails from a close-knit family. His mother, a Peruvian Indian from Lima, moved to the U.S. at age 14. He grew up in San Francisco.
31.
Will Rogers
Actor, Judge Priest
World-famous, widely popular American humorist of the vaudeville stage and of silent and sound films, Will Rogers graduated from military school, but his first real job was in the livestock business in Argentina, of all places. He transported pack animals across the South Atlantic from Buenos Aires to South Africa for use in the Boer War (1899-1902)...
32.
James Earl Jones
Actor, The Lion King
James Earl Jones was born on January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi, USA. At an early age, he started to take dramatic lessons to calm himself down. It appeared to work as he has since starred in many films over a 40-year period, beginning with the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. He is probably best known for his role as Darth Vader (for the voice only...
“ Of mixed ancestry including native american ” - pghopper