Person
Jay Silverheels
Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada
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 nu…
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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.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
-
2013
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man
Movie Tonto
- 2002
-
2001
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes
Movie Tonto
-
1973
Santee
Movie John Crow
-
1973
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
Movie The Chief
-
1973
One Little Indian
Movie Jimmy Wolf
-
1972
In Pursuit of Treasure
Movie
-
1971
Cannon
TV show
-
1971
Cat Ballou
Movie Indian Chief
-
1970
The Phynx
Movie Tonto
-
1969
The Brady Bunch
TV show Chief Eagle Cloud
-
1969
True Grit
Movie Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)
-
1969
Smith!
Movie McDonald Lasheway
-
1968
The Movie Orgy
Movie Tonto (archive footage)
-
1967
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
Movie Great Bear
-
1966
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
TV show
More credits
-
1965
Indian Paint
Movie Chief Hevatanu
-
1965
Branded
TV show
-
1964
Daniel Boone
TV show Sashona
-
1962
The Virginian
TV show Den'Gwatzi
-
1961
Gunslinger
TV show Hopi Indian
-
1960
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge
Movie Natchez
-
1959
Alias Jesse James
Movie Tonto (uncredited)
-
1959
Rawhide
TV show Pawnee Joe
-
1958
Wanted: Dead or Alive
TV show Charley Red Cloud
-
1958
The Western: A Lost TV Special
Movie Self
-
1958
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
Movie Tonto
-
1958
Return to Warbow
Movie Indian Joe
-
1956
Walk the Proud Land
Movie Geronimo
-
1956
The Lone Ranger
Movie Tonto
-
1955
The Vanishing American
Movie Beeteia
-
1954
Masterson of Kansas
Movie Yellow Hawk
-
1954
Four Guns to the Border
Movie Yaqui
-
1954
The Black Dakotas
Movie Black Buffalo
-
1954
Drums Across the River
Movie Taos
-
1954
Saskatchewan
Movie Cajou
-
1953
War Arrow
Movie Satanta
-
1953
The Nebraskan
Movie Spotted Bear
-
1953
Jack McCall, Desperado
Movie Red Cloud
-
1953
Last of the Comanches
Movie Indian (uncredited)
