Jay Silverheels
Biography
Jay Silverheels was born on a reservation in Canada to a Mohawk chief. He was a star lacrosse player and a boxer before he entered films as a stuntman in 1938. He worked in a number of films though the 1940s before he gained some notice as the Osceola brother in Humphrey Bogart's film Key Largo (1948). Most of his roles consisted of bit parts as "Indian." In 1949, he would work in a movie called The Cowboy and the Indians (1949) with another "B movie" actor named Clayton Moore. It was later that same year that Jay would be hired to play the faithful Indian companion, Tonto, in the television series "The Lone Ranger" (1949). This role, while still playing the "Indian," would bring Jay the fame that his motion picture career never did. As Tonto, on his horse Scout, Jay could show up where the Ranger could not and some of the time he would be shot at or beat up for his trouble. Jay would play Tonto in all the episodes except for those that he missed when he had his heart attack. In those episodes, he was replaced by the Ranger's nephew, Dan. However, Clayton Moore would miss the third season when he was replaced by John Hart. Jay would reprise the role of Tonto in two big-screen color movies with Moore, The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958). After the series ended in 1957, Jay could not escape the typecasting of Tonto. He would continue to appear in an occasional film and television show, but he would become a spokesman to improve the portrayal of Indians on TV.
Movies (71)
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man
2013
The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s
2002
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes
2001
Santee
1973
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
1973
One Little Indian
1973
In Pursuit of Treasure
1972
Cat Ballou
1971
The Phynx
1970
True Grit
1969
Smith!
1969
The Movie Orgy
1968
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
1967
Indian Paint
1965
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge
1960
Alias Jesse James
1959
The Western: A Lost TV Special
1958
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
1958
Return to Warbow
1958
Walk the Proud Land
1956
The Lone Ranger
1956
The Vanishing American
1955
Masterson of Kansas
1954
Four Guns to the Border
1954
The Black Dakotas
1954
Drums Across the River
1954
Saskatchewan
1954
War Arrow
1953
The Nebraskan
1953
Jack McCall, Desperado
1953
Last of the Comanches
1953
The Pathfinder
1952
Yankee Buccaneer
1952
Brave Warrior
1952
The Battle at Apache Pass
1952
The Half-Breed
1952
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger
1952
The Wild Blue Yonder
1951
Red Mountain
1951
Broken Arrow
1950
The Cowboy and the Indians
1949
Sand
1949
Trail of the Yukon
1949
Lust for Gold
1949
Laramie
1949
Tulsa
1949
Yellow Sky
1948
The Feathered Serpent
1948
Family Honeymoon
1948
Singin' Spurs
1948
Key Largo
1948
Fury at Furnace Creek
1948
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1948
Captain from Castile
1947
The Prairie
1947
The Last Round-up
1947
Gas House Kids Go West
1947
Tahiti Nights
1944
Lost in a Harem
1944
The Phantom
1943
Northern Pursuit
1943
The Girl from Monterrey
1943
Perils of Nyoka
1942
Valley of the Sun
1942
This Woman Is Mine
1941
Western Union
1941
Hudson's Bay
1940
Too Many Girls
1940
Kit Carson
1940
The Sea Hawk
1940
A Different Drum
TV Shows (14)
Cannon
1971
The Brady Bunch
1969
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
1966
Branded
1965
Daniel Boone
1964
Daniel Boone
1964
Daniel Boone
1964
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
The Virginian
1962
The Virginian
1962
Gunslinger
1961
Rawhide
1959
Wanted: Dead or Alive
1958
The Lone Ranger
1949