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