Saginaw Grant, a prolific Native American character actor and hereditary chief of the Sac & Fox Nation of Oklahoma, has died.
He was 85.
According to a report by Deadline, Lani Carmichael a publicist of Saginaw Grant stated that he died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes on Wednesday at a private care facility in Hollywood, California.
“He loved both Oklahoma and L.A.,” Carmichael said according to the Associated Press. “He made his home here as an actor, but he never forgot his roots in Oklahoma. He remained a fan of the Sooner Nation.”
Saginaw Grant born July 20, 1936, in Pawnee, Oklahoma, Grant was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
He began acting in the late 1980s and played character roles in dozens of movies and television shows over the last three decades, including The Lone Ranger, The World’s Fastest Indian, and Breaking Bad.
According to Carmichael, Grant traveled around the world to talk to people about Native American culture.
“His motto in life was always respect one another and don’t talk about one another in a negative way,” she said, the AP reported.
Grant’s early TV credits included The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Harts of the West, The Lazarus Man, The Last Frontier, Nash Bridges and Baywatch. He appeared more recently in many of TV’s most acclaimed comedies, including My Name Is Earl, Shameless, Community, The League, Workaholics, Baskets, and Veep. Other award-winning shows he appeared in include American Horror Story and Breaking Bad.
Grant was an influential member of the San Diego International Film Festival’s American Indian Advisory Board, who first got involved with the fest in 2012, and was awarded its American Legacy Award. He was also the recipient of the Oceanside Cultural Arts Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Native American Music Awards’ Living Legend Award.