Biography
Wesley "Wes" Studi (born December 17, 1947) is an American Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayals of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An American Legend and the Academy Award-nominated film The New World (2005). He most recently portrayed General Linus Abner (an analogue to the biblical Abner) in the NBC seri...
Known For
Complete Filmography
The Great Cherokee Grandmother
2025
A pleasant date between a man of Cherokee heritage and a Caucasian woman goes downhill when the woman flagrantly fixates on the very bane of Cherokee ...
The Midway Point
2024
as Mr. Williams
Jake, a high schooler on the autistic spectrum, feels disillusioned with the world. When he meets Alice, he begins to experience the world in other wa...
Terra Infirma
2024
as Grey Owl
Nature, government and industry collide in southwest US and southwest China, as nature fights back and people struggle to survive.
The Roof
2023
as Grandpa / Nick
After being sent to stay with his grandfather, a Cheyenne teen uncovers a connection to his family and community in a way he never thought possible.
Mending the Line
2023
as Harrison
A Marine wounded in Afghanistan returns to a VA hospital in Montana where he meets a Vietnam vet who teaches him fly fishing as a means to coming to t...
We Will Speak
2023
Executive Producer
The Cherokee language is deeply tied to Cherokee identity; yet generations of assimilation efforts by the U.S. government and anti-Indigenous stigmas ...
Bonnie
2022
as Self
A portrait of casting director Bonnie Timmermann.
Acting Like Nothing is Wrong
2022
as Self
Despite what would seem to be a flourishing career, most recently playing Kermit on Showtime's Shameless, Hollywood character actor Jim Hoffmaster str...
A Love Song
2022
as Lito
Two childhood sweethearts, now both widowed, share a night by a lake in the mountains.
Soul
2020
as Counselor Jerry (voice)
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an acciden...
Badland
2019
as Harlan Red
Detective Matthias Breecher, hired to track down the worst of the Confederate war criminals, roams the Old West seeking justice. His resolve is tested...
A Dog's Way Home
2019
as Captain Mica
The adventure of Bella, a dog who embarks on an epic 400-mile journey home after she is separated from her beloved human.
Hostiles
2017
as Chief Yellow Hawk
A legendary Native American-hating Army captain nearing retirement in 1892 is given one last assignment: to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family thr...
The Condemned 2
2015
as Cyrus
A former bounty hunter who finds himself on the run as part of a revamped Condemned tournament, in which convicts are forced to fight each other to th...
Ronnie BoDean
2015
as Ronnie BoDean
Ronnie BoDean is a larger-than-life "toughman" suffering from a mean hangover. When his neighbor is jailed, his native warrior's need to teach takes o...
Planes: Fire & Rescue
2014
as Windlifter
When world-famous air racer Dusty learns that his engine is damaged and he may never race again, he must shift gears and is launched into the world of...
Pie Lady of Pie Town
2014
as Narrator (voice)
In the New Mexico desert, pie equals love. Kathy Knapp left her privileged life to bake pie in dusty Pie Town, a once forgotten corner of the world wi...
A Million Ways to Die in the West
2014
as Cochise
As a cowardly farmer begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town, he must put his new-found courage to the test when her husband, a notorious ...
Road to Paloma
2014
as Numay
While Native American Wolf is being pursued by the FBI for having taken the law into his own hands, when his mother was raped and killed on their rese...
Sugar
2013
as Bishop
A 20-year-old homeless girl is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome on the streets of Hollywood and Venice beach.
Battledogs
2013
as Captain Falcos
When a strange werewolf virus threatens to decimate first New York and then the world, a rogue general uses the disease to create an army of super-sol...
Destination: Planet Negro!
2013
as Chief Bobby
In 1939, a group of African American intellectuals come up with an ingenious and unlikely response to Jim Crow America -- leave the planet and populat...
Being Flynn
2012
as Captain
Working in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn re-encounters his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick w...
The Dome of Heaven
2011
as DeWayne Moses
Set in the unique beauty of Oklahoma country, "Dome of Heaven" is the story of the Moses family, dysfunctionally struggling for decades, and which con...
A Good Day to Die
2010
as Himself - Actor; Cherokee
Interviews and archival footage profile the life of Dennis Banks, American Indian Movement leader who looks back at his early life and the rise of the...
Making The Last of the Mohicans
2010
as Self
Interviews with the cast and crew of the 1992 Michael Mann film.
Reel Injun
2010
as Self
The evolution of the depiction of the various Native American peoples in cinema, from the silent era to the present day: how their image on the screen...
Avatar
2009
as Eytukan
In the 22nd century, a paraplegic Marine is dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission, but becomes torn between following orders and protecti...
The Only Good Indian
2009
as Sam
Set in Kansas during the early 1900s, a teen-aged Native American boy is taken from his family and forced to attend a distant Indian "training" school...
Call of the Wild
2009
as Hatcher
Self-centered and status-conscious, ten year old Ryann Hale journeys to Montana to visit her down-to-earth grandpa, Bill Hale. Ryann bonds with a wolf...
The Undying
2009
as Lt. Frank Wascoe
Seduced by the ghost of a Civil War soldier, Barbara Haughton creates a love that is undying.
Older Than America
2008
as Richard Two Rivers
The truth of the past come to light in a series of haunting visions in this drama. The strange visions grow more vivid with each passing day, a young ...
El Camino
2008
as Dave
Three young people drive to Mexico to scatter their friend's ashes, they are forced to confront their own sense of family, identity and future.
Three Priests
2008
as Ben
Dusty and Joe are brothers as different as can be. Dusty, a confident bronco rider and ladies' man, has always dominated the shy, younger Joe, who str...
Cosmic Radio
2007
as Sherriff Mike Nighthorse
A 38-year-old California trust fund kid tries to save his independent radio station, KZMC Cosmic Radio, from financial ruin when his wealthy father pu...
Wolf Ridge
2007
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
2007
as Wovoka
Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastm...
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
2007
as Jack Wilson
Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastm...
Seraphim Falls
2007
as Charon
The Civil War has ended, but Colonel Morsman Carver is on one final mission – to kill Gideon, no matter what it takes. Launched by a gunshot and prope...
The Trail Of Tears: Cherokee Legacy
2006
as Himself
Explore America’s darkest period: President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation to Oklahoma in 1...
The New World
2005
as Opechancanough
A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.
Miracle at Sage Creek
2005
as Chief Thomas
Two families overcome prejudice and tragedy in 1888 Wyoming when a special Christmas miracle saves the life of a small boy.
Animal
2005
as Creeper
His name: infamous. His reputation: ruthless. But when James "Animal"Allen is locked up in a maximum security prison, he meets a revolutionary who cha...
A Thief Of Time
2004
as Joe Leaphorn
Officers Leaphorn and Chee search for a missing anthropologist suspected of stealing artifacts from a burial site.
Edge of America
2003
as Cuch
From acclaimed director Chris Eyre, whom People Magazine calls "…the preeminent Native American filmmaker of his time", comes this touching and inspir...
Coyote Waits
2003
as Joe Leaphorn
A Navajo shaman is the prime suspect in a murder case in this drama from PBS. But as Officer Jim Chee investigates the case he discovers some unusual ...
The Lone Ranger
2003
as Kulakinah
This version takes a look at the character in the years before he became a legend. It all begins with the introduction of Luke Hartman, a 20-year old ...
Skinwalkers
2002
as Lt. Joe Leaphorn
Faced with the murder of three medicine men, Navajo police must find the culprit. That the murders appear to be the work of a Skinwalker, or bad medic...
Undisputed
2002
as Mingo Pace
Monroe Hutchens is the heavyweight champion of Sweetwater, a maximum security prison. He was convicted to a life sentence due to a passionate crime. I...
Superfire
2002
as Joe Nighttrail
A firefighter pilot blames himself for the death of his previous colleagues and gets a new assignment with a raging forest fire in Portland, Oregon, t...
Road to Redemption
2001
as Frank Lightfoot
A couple come into contact with stolen mob money, gamble it away, and end up on the run from gangsters
Christmas in the Clouds
2001
as Bingo Caller
A classic comedy of mistaken identity and romance set during the holiday season at a ski resort that is owned and operated by a Native American Nation...
Ice Planet
2001
as Commander Jonah Trager
In the brief period of peace after a terrible war on a far future Earth, an outer-space military academy is attacked by an unknown and unstoppable ali...
Wind River
2000
as Pocatello
The 1854 Wyoming historical drama is based on Tom Shell's adaptation of the true life memoirs of Pony Express rider Nick Wilson.
Mystery Men
1999
as Sphinx
When Champion City's hero Captain Amazing is kidnapped by the recently paroled supervillain Casanova Frankenstein, a trio of average, everyday superhe...
Soundman
1999
as Terry Leonard
A sound mixer on a low-budget sci-fi western movie falls in love with an untalented violinist and promises to get her scoring gigs for films.
Deep Rising
1998
as Hanover
A group of heavily armed hijackers board a luxury ocean liner in the South Pacific Ocean to loot it, only to do battle with a series of large-sized, t...
Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western
1997
as Self
Interviews and film clips re-create the glorious history of the American western.
The Killing Jar
1997
as Cameron
Michael Sanford and his wife move to his old town so he can take over the family business. However, gruesome murders of children start to happen. Mean...
Crazy Horse
1996
as Red Cloud
The legendary Native American chieftain refuses to go with his people peacefully to the reservation and starts a rebellion.
Lone Justice: Showdown at Plum Creek
1996
A frontier sheriff copes with a missing corpse, Briton Oscar Wilde and an assassination attempt.
Heat
1995
as Casals
Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna p...
Street Fighter
1994
as Sagat
Colonel Guile and various other martial arts heroes fight against the tyranny of dictator M. Bison and his cohorts.
Indian America: A Gift from the Past
1994
as Self - Narrator (voice)
In 1970 a storm uncovers an ancient whaling village called Ozette which had been buried some 500 years ago by a massive mudslide. The resulting excava...
Geronimo: An American Legend
1993
as Geronimo
The Apache Indians have reluctantly agreed to settle on a US Government approved reservation. Not all the Apaches are able to adapt to the life of cor...
The Broken Chain
1993
as Seth / Chief / Speaker for the Tribes
The true story of Iroquois warrior Thayendanegea participating in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War.
The Last of the Mohicans
1992
as Magua
In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a B...
The Doors
1991
as Indian in Desert
The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.
Dances with Wolves
1990
as Toughest Pawnee
Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junct...
Powwow Highway
1989
as Buff
Two Northern Cheyenne men take a road trip from Montana to New Mexico to bail out the sister of one of them who has been framed and arrested in Santa ...
Longarm
1988
as The Ute
A showdown is staged between a U.S. deputy marshal and the outlaw gang that raised him in the New Mexico Territory of 1887.
Behind the Lines
N/A
as Self
Documentary based on three New York Times bestselling books by historian Andrew Carroll and inspired by the stage play If All the Sky Were Paper, the ...
Canyon of the Dead
N/A
as Tsali
Two archaeologists seek out the Canyon of the Dead and the dead find them.
Candles
N/A
A fictional drama based on actual events. CANDLES is the story of the Camp Scott Murders where three small girls were brutally raped and murdered at a...
Brave
N/A
as Ernie
Uncle Jack, a 15-year military veteran with a history of substance abuse who works as an entertainer at a local Native casino. At his estranged brothe...
Timber Lands
N/A
as Russ
Follows two families with a deep-seated generational hatred for each other which comes to a head after the tragic death of one of the families’ celebr...
The Pipeline
N/A
as Samuel Horse
Based on true stories surrounding the building of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline; a woman, whose father dies, is left a trust fund tied to a mysterious...
Exhale
N/A
as George
A Native American actress with respiratory issues psychologically unravels as an airborne virus sieges the world.
The Pipeline
N/A
Executive Producer
Based on true stories surrounding the building of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline; a woman, whose father dies, is left a trust fund tied to a mysterious...