Jay Silverheels
Actor
Born May 26, 1912 in 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.
Filmography
A Different Drum
Jim Swift Hands
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man
Tonto
The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes
Tonto
Santee
John Crow
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
The Chief
One Little Indian
Jimmy Wolf
In Pursuit of Treasure
Cannon
Cat Ballou
Indian Chief
The Phynx
Tonto
The Brady Bunch
Chief Eagle Cloud
True Grit
Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)
Smith!
McDonald Lasheway
The Movie Orgy
Tonto (archive footage)
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
Great Bear
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
Indian Paint
Chief Hevatanu
Branded
Daniel Boone
Sashona
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Virginian
Den'Gwatzi
Gunslinger
Hopi Indian
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge
Natchez
Alias Jesse James
Tonto (uncredited)
Rawhide
Pawnee Joe
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Charley Red Cloud
The Western: A Lost TV Special
Self
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
Tonto
Return to Warbow
Indian Joe
Walk the Proud Land
Geronimo
The Lone Ranger
Tonto
The Vanishing American
Beeteia
Masterson of Kansas
Yellow Hawk
Four Guns to the Border
Yaqui
The Black Dakotas
Black Buffalo
Drums Across the River
Taos
Saskatchewan
Cajou
War Arrow
Satanta
The Nebraskan
Spotted Bear
Jack McCall, Desperado
Red Cloud
Last of the Comanches
Indian (uncredited)
The Pathfinder
Chingachgook
Yankee Buccaneer
Lead Warrior
Brave Warrior
Chief Tecumseh
The Battle at Apache Pass
Geronimo
The Half-Breed
Apache (uncredited)
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger
Tonto
The Wild Blue Yonder
Benders
Red Mountain
Little Crow
Broken Arrow
Geronimo (uncredited)
The Cowboy and the Indians
Lakohna
The Lone Ranger
Tonto
Sand
Indian (uncredited)
Trail of the Yukon
Poleon
Lust for Gold
Walter
Laramie
Running Wolf (uncredited)
Tulsa
Creek Indian (uncredited)
Yellow Sky
Indian (uncredited)
The Feathered Serpent
Diego (uncredited)
Family Honeymoon
Elevator Boy (uncredited)
Singin' Spurs
Abel
Key Largo
Tom Osceola (uncredited)
Fury at Furnace Creek
Little Dog (uncredited)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited)
Captain from Castile
Coatl (uncredited)
The Prairie
Running Deer
The Last Round-up
Gas House Kids Go West
Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited)
Tahiti Nights
Lua
Lost in a Harem
Guard at Execution (uncredited)
The Phantom
Astari Warrior (uncredited)
Northern Pursuit
Indian (uncredited)
The Girl from Monterrey
Fighter Tito Flores
Perils of Nyoka
Tuareg
Valley of the Sun
Indian (uncredited)
This Woman Is Mine
Indian Marauder
Western Union
Indian
Hudson's Bay
Indian (uncredited)
Too Many Girls
Indian (uncredited)
Kit Carson
Indian
The Sea Hawk
Native Lookout