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