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Jay Silverheels

Jay Silverheels

Actor · 1912 – 1980 · Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada

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.

Movies23

  • Movie7.3

    True Grit

    1969 · 890 votes

  • Movie8.0
  • Movie6.7

    Broken Arrow

    1950 · 229 votes

  • Movie7.2

    The Sea Hawk

    1940 · 163 votes

  • Movie6.0
  • Movie5.9

    Walk the Proud Land

    1956 · 15 votes

  • Movie6.6
  • Movie6.2

    The Lone Ranger

    1956 · 26 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Western Union

    1941 · 88 votes

  • Movie7.5

    Key Largo

    1948 · 602 votes

  • Movie6.8

    The Movie Orgy

    1968 · 19 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Alias Jesse James

    1959 · 30 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Red Mountain

    1951 · 22 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Last of the Comanches

    1953 · 24 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Saskatchewan

    1954 · 27 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Drums Across the River

    1954 · 24 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Yellow Sky

    1948 · 131 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Valley of the Sun

    1942 · 6 votes

  • Movie5.0

    Four Guns to the Border

    1954 · 19 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Smith!

    1969 · 14 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Passage to Marseille

    1944 · 72 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Captain from Castile

    1947 · 32 votes

  • Movie5.6

    Lost in a Harem

    1944 · 18 votes

Series10

  • TV6.5

    The Virginian

    1962 · 35 votes

  • TV6.7

    Cannon

    1971 · 42 votes

  • TV7.0

    Daniel Boone

    1964 · 34 votes

  • TV7.1

    Wanted: Dead or Alive

    1958 · 38 votes

  • TV7.3

    Rawhide

    1959 · 50 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Lone Ranger

    1949 · 36 votes

  • TV6.7

    The Brady Bunch

    1969 · 170 votes

  • TV6.8

    Branded

    1965 · 18 votes

  • TV7.6

    Pistols 'n' Petticoats

    1966 · 5 votes

  • TV6.3

    Gunslinger

    1961 · 3 votes