Jay Silverheels
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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.
Known for
Credits
True Grit (1969)
as Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
as Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited)
Broken Arrow (1950)
as Geronimo (uncredited)
Key Largo (1948)
as Tom Osceola (uncredited)
The Sea Hawk (1940)
as Native Lookout
Yellow Sky (1948)
as Indian (uncredited)
The Lone Ranger (1956)
as Tonto
Last of the Comanches (1953)
as Indian (uncredited)
Western Union (1941)
as Indian
The Movie Orgy (1968)
as Tonto (archive footage)
Tulsa (1949)
as Creek Indian (uncredited)
War Arrow (1953)
as Satanta
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)
as The Chief
Brave Warrior (1952)
as Chief Tecumseh
Alias Jesse James (1959)
as Tonto (uncredited)
Sand (1949)
as Indian (uncredited)
The Phynx (1970)
as Tonto
Saskatchewan (1954)
as Cajou
The Battle at Apache Pass (1952)
as Geronimo
Captain from Castile (1947)
as Coatl (uncredited)
One Little Indian (1973)
as Jimmy Wolf
Four Guns to the Border (1954)
as Yaqui
Red Mountain (1951)
as Little Crow
Kit Carson (1940)
as Indian
Lust for Gold (1949)
as Walter
Lost in a Harem (1944)
as Guard at Execution (uncredited)
Masterson of Kansas (1954)
as Yellow Hawk
The Vanishing American (1955)
as Beeteia
Family Honeymoon (1948)
as Elevator Boy (uncredited)
Valley of the Sun (1942)
as Indian (uncredited)
Smith! (1969)
as McDonald Lasheway
The Nebraskan (1953)
as Spotted Bear
The Phantom (1943)
as Astari Warrior (uncredited)
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger (1952)
as Tonto
Northern Pursuit (1943)
as Indian (uncredited)
Pistols 'n' Petticoats (1967)
as Great Bear
Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)
as Little Dog (uncredited)
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958)
as Tonto
The Black Dakotas (1954)
as Black Buffalo
Walk the Proud Land (1956)
as Geronimo
Drums Across the River (1954)
as Taos
Cat Ballou (1971)
as Indian Chief
Too Many Girls (1940)
as Indian
The Prairie (1947)
as Running Deer
The Half-Breed (1952)
as Apache (uncredited)
Hudson's Bay (1940)
as Indian (uncredited)
The Cowboy and the Indians (1949)
as Lakohna
Yankee Buccaneer (1952)
as Lead Warrior
Santee (1973)
as John Crow
The Pathfinder (1952)
as Chingachgook
Jack McCall, Desperado (1953)
as Red Cloud
The Western: A Lost TV Special (1958)
as Self
The Wild Blue Yonder (1951)
as Benders
Return to Warbow (1958)
as Indian Joe
Gas House Kids Go West (1947)
as Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited)
This Woman Is Mine (1941)
as Indian Marauder
The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s (2002)
Actor
Trail of the Yukon (1949)
as Poleon
The Feathered Serpent (1948)
as Diego (uncredited)
Tahiti Nights (1944)
as Lua
Singin' Spurs (1948)
as Abel
The Girl from Monterrey (1943)
as Fighter Tito Flores
Laramie (1949)
as Running Wolf (uncredited)
In Pursuit of Treasure (1972)
Actor
Perils of Nyoka (1942)
as Tuareg
The Last Round-up (1947)
Actor
I Am an American (1944)
as Indian (uncredited)
Indian Paint (1965)
as Chief Hevatanu
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge (1960)
as Natchez
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes (2001)
as Tonto
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man (2013)
as Tonto
A Different Drum (—)
as Jim Swift Hands