Biography
This often intimidating but charismatic and ruggedly handsome actor of full-blooded Cherokee heritage enhanced several thoughtful Hollywood Westerns of the 1990s by thoroughly embodying roles that would have once been mere stereotypes and imbuing them with depth and dignity. The intense and muscular Studi first gained attention playing the "toughest" of the Pawnees in Kevin Costner's ambitious and well-meaning revisionist work "Dances With …
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Career Milestones
| Began periodically performing his own one-man show, "Coyote Chews His Own Tail", which debuted at the West Coast Ensemble Theater in Hollywood | ||
| Helped start a Cherokee newspaper while attending college | ||
| Joining the cast of "Comanche Moon," Larry McMurtry's prequel to his western saga "Lonesome Dove" | ||
| Raised in northeastern Oklahoma | ||
| Taught the Cherokee language in college | ||
| Worked as a reporter for the Tulsa "Indian News" | ||
| Worked in educational TV in Nebraska | ||
1947 | Spoke native Cherokee until entering school at age five | |
1964 | Graduated high school | |
1967 | Served a tour of duty in Vietnam after high school | |
1972 | Joined the Trail of Broken Treaties protest march | |
1973 | Joined the American Indian Movement in the occupation of Wounded Knee, SD | |
1983 | Joined the American Indian Theater Company in Tulsa | |
1984 | Professional stage debut in "Black Elk Speaks" | |
1986 | Moved to Los Angeles | |
1988 | Feature acting debut, "Powwow Highway" | |
1988 | Made TV debut in a small role of the ABC TV-movie, "Longarm" | |
1990 | Did a guest shot on the superhero series "The Flash" | |
1992 | First TV credit for voice work, provided a voice for "In the White Man's Image", a presentation of the PBS documentary series "The American Experience" | |
1992 | First film in a major role, "The Last of the Mohicans" | |
1993 | Appeared on HBO in "American Reunion: The People's Inaugural Celebration", reciting "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in English and Cherokee | |
1993 | Cast as One Horse, a regular on the short-lived CBS Western "Ned Blessing: The Story of My Life and Times" | |
1993 | Provided the voice of Crazy Horse for the syndicated Western documentary series, "The Wild West" | |
1993 | Starred as the title character in the biopic "Geronimo: An American Legend" | |
1995 | TV miniseries debut, "Larry McMurtry's 'Streets of Laredo'", a sequel to "Lonesome Dove" | |
1998 | Appeared in "Deep Rising" | |
2002 | Starred alongside Adam Beach in the PBS "Mystery!" production "Skinwalkers", directed by Chris Eyre | |
2005 | Cast in the Terrence Malick-scripted drama "The New World," about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers | |
2005 | Co-starred in the Steven Spielberg produced "Into the West" (TNT) | |