- Born
- Died
- Birth nameGeswanouth Slahoot
- Actor, author, and musician Chief Dan George was born in present-day North Vancouver as Geswanouth Slahoot (later anglicized as 'Dan Slaholt'), the son of a tribal chief on Burrard Indian Reserve Nº. 3. He is the only Aboriginal actor in Canadian history to date with the right to use the title "Chief", serving as leader of the Squamish First Nation of Burrard Inlet from 1951-63, and retained the honorary title after his term ended. His last name was changed to George when at age 5 he entered a mission boarding school where the use of his native language was discouraged, if not forbidden.
Until 1959, he had worked as a longshoreman, logger, bus driver, and itinerant musician. After spending much of his early life as a longshoreman, a construction worker, and a school-bus driver, Chief Dan George auditioned for the role of Ol' Antoine on Cariboo Country (1960), a CBC series, and won the part. He made his screen debut at age 65. On the strength of his performance in the series, and after playing the same part in Smith! (1969), a Disney adaptation of one of the show's episodes based on "Breaking Smith's Quarterhorse", a novella by Paul St. Pierre, and starring Glenn Ford, he was asked to play "Old Lodge Skins" in Little Big Man (1970). This role led to an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1970. He continued to appear in films and became an accomplished stage actor. He died in 1981 on the same Indian reserve where he was born in North Vancouver at age 82.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Matt Hodson/Robert Sieger - Chief Dan George played old Moses Paul in 'Spirit of the Wind', a film made in 1979 by John Logue and Ralph Liddle that was never released in the US until recently. Chief Dan George's maturity as an actor in this film, his last, playing a scruffy, venerable trainer of sled dogs, provided an aura of authenticity to the strenuous efforts of first-time actor Pius Savage to play George Attla as he learns the art of dog-mushing and prepares to enter his first Rondy competition in Fairbanks. The film has an entirely Native American cast--except for Slim Pickens as the local shopkeeper--and includes a scintillating musical score by Buffy Saint Marie, herself a Native Canadian of the Cree Nation. The Montreal Star wrote, 'Slim Pickens and Chief Dan George show why they are among the most noteworthy character actors ever to have graced the screen.'- IMDb Mini Biography By: Susan Solomon
- RelativesRachelle George(Great Grandchild)Lee Maracle(Grandchild)
- Was chief of the Burrard Band of North Vancouver, British Columbia (aka the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation today), from 1951 to 1963. Although the position is elected, not hereditary, his son Chief Leonard George is chief today.
- Actor Donald Sutherland quoted from his poem "My Heart Soars" in the the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010: XXI Olympic Winter Games.
- Until 1959, when he was 60 years old, he worked as a longshoreman, logger, and itinerant musician.
- Always insisted on playing "good" First Nation characters.
- Was a successful poet. Wrote two books of poetry, My Heart Soars (1974) and My Spirit Soars (1982). Also recited his famous work, "Lament for Confederation," at Vancouver, British Columbia's 1967 Canadian Centennial celebrations in Empire Stadium; the speech was a stirring--and unexpected--indictment of colonialism's impact on First Nations people and helped galvanize native political activism in British Columbia, and also created support and awareness among non-natives.
- [at a celebration of Canada's 100th anniversary, July 1, 1967] In the long hundred years since the white man came, I have seen my freedom disappear like the salmon going mysteriously out to sea. The white man's strange customs which I could not understand pressed down on me until I could no longer breathe. When I fought to protect my land and my home, I was called a savage. When I neither understood nor welcomed his way of life, I was called lazy. When I tried to rule my people, I was stripped of my authority. My nation was ignored in your history textbooks - they were little more important in the history of Canada than the buffalo that ranged the plains. I was ridiculed in your plays and motion pictures, and when I drank your firewater, I got drunk, very drunk. Oh, Canada, how can I celebrate with you this centenary, this hundred years?
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