chief dan george...

 June 24, 1899: Happy Birthday, Chief Dan George. Yes, he really was a chief of a First Nations tribe; the Tsleil-Waututh tribe of British Columbia. He made only a handful of movies, but he is memorable in every one of them. Born Geswanouth Slahoot, he was given the name Dan Slaholt as his “English” name and then the surname George when he was sent to a Canadian boarding school to be assimilated into white Canadian society. He worked at a number of jobs over the years and it was not until 1960, when he was 60 that Chief Dan George began acting when he landed a part on a Canadian TV series, “Cariboo Country”. He did his first film work in 1969 for Disney in “Smith!”. Dan George’s work in Arthur Penn’s “Little Big Man”, alongside Dustin Hoffman, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Over the next 10 years, Chief Dan George appeared in a dozen films including “Harry and Tonto” with Art Carney, “The Bears and I” for Disney, “The Outlaw Josey Wales” with Clint Eastwood, and in the TV miniseries “Centennial”. In addition to acting, Dan George was a published poet and his “My Heart Soars” was quoted as part of the opening ceremony for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics:

“The beauty of the trees,

the softness of the air,

the fragrance of the grass,

speaks to me.

And my heart soars.”

Chief Dan George died in 1981 at the age of 82.