Tantoo Cardinal

Early life

Tantoo Cardinal was born the youngest of three children to Julia Cardinal, a woman of Cree and Métis descent, and a white father.

Cardinal was raised in the hamlet of Anzac, Alberta. The lack of electricity inspired her to use her imagination while playing in the bush. Her grandmother nicknamed her "Tantoo" after the insect repellent they used while picking blueberries together. She taught Cardinal the Cree language, the traditional ways of their culture and the difficulties she would face growing up Métis in Canada. Cardinal has said that it was walking behind her grandmother where she first learned to act.

Career

Cardinal has played roles in many notable films and television series, including Spirit Bay, Loyalties, Dances with Wolves, Black Robe, Legends of the Fall, Smoke Signals, Hold the Dark and North of 60. She was cast in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation mini-series By Way of the Stars with Gordon Tootoosis as the Cree Chief and Eric Schweig as Black Thunder.

In 2009, she was made a member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada, as a screen and stage actress, and as a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company".

On August 23, 2011, Cardinal, Margot Kidder, and dozens of others were arrested while protesting the proposed extension of the Keystone Pipeline.

In 2012, Cardinal portrayed Regan in an all-aboriginal production of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The production was helmed by Order of Canada member Peter Hinton-Davis and included August Schellenberg as Lear, Billy Merasty as Gloucester, Jani Lauzon in a dual role as Cordelia and the Fool, and Craig Lauzon as Kent.

She played Marilyn Yarlott for three seasons as a recurring cast member in the Netflix series Longmire, a Crow hunter and medicine woman who lives alone in the vast wilderness of the Crow reservation.

In 2017 she was named the winner of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement. She has also won a Gemini Award, a National Aboriginal Achievement Award (now Indspire Award) and was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

In the 2018 film The Grizzlies, she plays a high school principal who is skeptical that a first-time teacher can address social issues in the northwestern Nunavut community of Kugluktuk.

On November 26, 2021, Cardinal and several other laureates received the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards after a nearly two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her portrait, taken by mixed-media artist HAUI, is displayed at Rideau Hall.

In 2023, Cardinal was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Personal life

Cardinal met her first husband, Fred Martin, while boarding at his family's home during her high school years in Edmonton. They were married from 1968 to 1978 and had a son, Cheyenne, prior to their divorce.

She had her second son, Clifford, with Beaver Richards.

From 1988 to 2000, Cardinal was married to actor John Lawlor, with whom she had a daughter, Riel.

Filmography

Film

Television

Audiobooks

Music videos

References

References

1. (December 19, 2018). "Tantoo Cardinal". [[Historica Canada]].
2. (February 12, 2008). "Actress Tantoo Cardinal to speak at IU's Native Film Series on Feb. 20". [[Indiana University]].
3. "Tantoo Cardinal". [[The Internet Movie Database]].
4. (December 30, 2009). "Governor General Announces 57 New Appointments to the Order of Canada". Office of the Secretary to the Governor General.
5. (August 23, 2011). "Margot Kidder arrested at White House oil protest". CBC News.
6. (December 2017). "Aboriginal cast in staging of King Lear". [[Ottawa Citizen]].
7. [http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/living/2017/1/12/tantoo-cardinal-among-those-getting-special-canadian-screen-awards.html "Tantoo Cardinal among those getting special Canadian Screen Awards"] {{Webarchive. link. (January 13, 2017 . ''[[The Guardian (Charlottetown)). The Guardian]]'', January 12, 2016.
8. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/cardinal-reynolds-ohara-governor-general-award-1.6265369 "Tantoo Cardinal, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine O'Hara receive their Governor General's awards"]. ''[[CBC News]]''. November 27, 2021. Archived from [https://web.archive.org/web/20211128083919/https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/cardinal-reynolds-ohara-governor-general-award-1.6265369 the original] on November 28, 2021.
9. [https://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductee/tantoo-cardinal "Tantoo Cardinal"]. ''Canada's Walk of Fame''. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
10. Muredda, Angelo. (August 22, 2019). "''Angelique's Isle'': A rarely told Canadian story visits a hidden landscape, but takes some shaky steps".
11. Shepherd, Jeremy. (2019-09-26). "Marie Clements premieres Red Snow at film fest".
12. Knight, Chris. (May 28, 2021). "''The Corruption of Divine Providence'' is a catechism cataclysm".
13. King, Jack. (March 14, 2022). "'Wendell & Wild' Teaser Announces Ving Rhames, David Harewood, and More Joining Voice Cast".
14. Wiseman, Andreas. (2021-10-25). "WME Independent Launches Sales On Jason Momoa Western ''The Last Manhunt'' About Legend Of Willie Boy; First Look Images".
15. D'Alessandro, Anthony. (2021-03-11). "''Killers Of The Flower Moon'' Sets Tantoo Cardinal Among Indigenous Actresses To Join Cast Of Martin Scorsese Movie".
16. Hipes, Patrick. (2022-08-25). "Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Peyton Elizabeth Lee Among Voice Cast For Laika's ''Wildwood''".
17. [http://sctvguide.ca/episodes/sctv_s42.htm#Show_2 4/2 - 2 I'm Taking My Own Head, Screwing It On Right, and no Guy's Gonna Tell Me It Ain't with The Plasmatics, Airdate: 23 October 1981]
18. "Tantoo Cardinal (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors.
19. Horton, Tom. (2021-09-02). "''Three Pines'' image offers glimpse of Alfred Molina as police detective". Belfast Telegraph.
20. Paige, Rachel. (May 17, 2022). "''Echo'': Alaqua Cox Returns to the MCU as Maya Lopez in First-Look Image".