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