Early Life
Lily Gladstone was born on August 2, 1986, and raised in Browning, Montana. Her father, who worked in broadcast journalism, is of Blackfeet and Nimbus descent, while her mother, an early childhood education specialist, is white. Gladstone lived on the reservation of the Blackfeet Nation until she was 11. For the first years of her life, the family had a log cabin with a wood-burning stove. In describing Browning, Gladstone said: “There is poverty, violence, substance abuse, and unemployment everywhere. But there is so much love in that community. What unites people there is a love of family, a love of land.” Gladstone said she was “an energetic and performative kid who got made fun of a lotjust that chubby mixed girl on the rez who had a little bit too much creative energy and not enough outlets.” Her father and grandfather were big movie buffs, and growing up, she watched many movies on cable television that they had recorded.
After her family moved away from Browning due to a lack of economic opportunities, she graduated high school in a suburb of Seattle and then attended the University of Montana. She studied acting and theater, graduating in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a minor in Native American Studies. While in college, she performed in Montana Repertory Theatre productions, where the teacher and director Greg Johnson said of her: “There are a lot of talented kids at UM, but she’s always been a standout. She’s absolutely a transcendent actress. We were lucky to have her.” Gladstone said one particular piece of advice she took to heart at UM was: “Keep yourself interested and invested in the world, and you will stay an interesting performer. As soon as you disconnect from the human experience, you’ll be flat.”
Lily Gladstone understands the importance of her 2024 Academy Award nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon specifically, what it means for other Native American actors. The 37 year old is the first native actor to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Mollie Kyle Burkhart in the Martin Scorsese directed crime drama, and she recently spoke about the significance to ABC News. “I mean, 96 years. It’s overdue,” Gladstone said. “Being the first Native American nominee for this kinda blows my mind because the origin of film some of the earliest film reels that people were watching, pouring out to go see were made by native people documenting and showing and capturing some of our dances and some of our own stories.
American Indians were at the heart of Hollywood in the 1920. It’s a big deal. It’s long overdue, but it’s very welcome.” Gladstone very well might win on Oscar night, March 10. She has already claimed a Golden Globe and, more recently on February 24, a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance. In the movie, Gladstone, of both Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage, plays an Osage woman whose friends and family members are murdered as part of a conspiracy for oil money.
Who Is Lily Gladstone?
Lily Gladstone is an American actor of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage. She is best known for her appearance in the 2023 Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon, in which she plays an Osage woman living on an Oklahoma reservation during a series of murders in the 1920. The performance has been described as Gladstone’s mainstream breakout role, leading to her first Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win. Before this role, Gladstone appeared in several independent movies and television shows, including Reservation Dogs. She drew particular praise for her performance in 2016’s Certain Women, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female and other accolades.
Theater Work and Movies
She next appeared in Winter in the Blood (2013), a hallucinatory film about a Native American man in a small Montana town. Gladstone called it a “labor of love” for people from Montana, saying: “Winter in the Blood relied so heavily on the Montana community, so many locals, and so many people who have a strong connection with the legacy of the novel.” She also appeared in the film Buster’s Mal Heart (2016). Gladstone was praised for her portrayal as a rancher in Certain Women (2016) by independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. Starring alongside actors Michelle Williams, Laura Dern, and Kristen Stewart, The Guardian called it her “big break,” while Rolling Stone wrote: “Gladstone gives a performance of such piercing honesty and yearning, you almost can’t look at her.” The rising actor went on to earn several awards and nominations. That included winning the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. Gladstone was also nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. Gladstone performed onstage for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and worked with a Native American youth theater program called Red Eagle Soaring. She made television appearances in HBO’s Room 104 (2017-2020), Showtime’s Billions (2019-2023), and FX’s Reservation Dogs (2022) and collaborated with Kelly Reichardt again with a small role in the independent film First Cow (2019). She also appeared in a Yale Repertory Theatre production of Mary Kathryn Nagle’s Manahatta in 2020.
