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