EDMONTON — Actor-director Kevin Costner is remembering his late "Dances With Wolves" co-star Maury Chaykin as "a really, really wonderful actor."

Costner won Oscars for producing and directing the movie about a U.S. army lieutenant who comes to live with a group of Lakota Indians during the Civil War.

Chaykin, who died this week at the age of 61, had a small but well-received role as an insane major who presents Costner's Lt. John Dunbar with his marching orders.

Costner recalled the performance as "eccentric."

He says Chaykin was an inventive actor who "really stole the show with that scene."

Chaykin had a long and rich career as a character actor in both films and television, most recently in the quirky Winnipeg-based comedy "Less Than Kind."

He won a Genie award for best actor for 1994's "Whale Music," playing a reclusive former rock star who begins to reconnect with people after finding a mysterious young woman in his living room.