Name
Jay Silverheels
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1912-05-26
Deathday
1980-03-05 (68 years old)
Place of Birth
Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Biography
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
7.949
Two jobless Americans convince a prospector to travel to the mountains of Mexico with them...
6.703
Indian scout Tom Jeffords is sent out to stem the war between the American settlers and Ap...
5.935
On the run from her violent husband, a woman witnesses a train robbery and is taken prison...
6.375
It's 1876 and all the Indians are at peace except the Comanches lead by Black Cloud. When ...
7.17
Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in l...
6
A man determined to track down the fabled Arizona gold mine known as The Lost Dutchman has...
6.1
Insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth sells a man a life policy only to discover that the ...
6.2
The territorial governor asks the Lone Ranger to investigate mysterious raids on settlers ...
- 1948 The Feathered Serpent as Diego (uncredited)
- 1968 The Movie Orgy as Tonto (archive footage)
- 1960 Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge as Natchez
- 1944 Tahiti Nights as Lua
- 1973 The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing as The Chief
- 1970 The Phynx as Tonto
- 1973 One Little Indian as Jimmy Wolf
- 1952 Yankee Buccaneer as Lead Warrior
- 1973 Santee as John Crow
- 1947 Captain from Castile as Coatl (uncredited)
- 1943 Northern Pursuit as Indian (uncredited)
- 1943 The Phantom as Astari Warrior (uncredited)
- 1952 The Half-Breed as Apache (uncredited)
- 1967 Pistols 'n' Petticoats as Great Bear
- 1958 The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold as Tonto
- 1956 The Lone Ranger as Tonto
- 1954 Drums Across the River as Taos
- 1949 Tulsa as Creek Indian (uncredited)
- 1954 The Black Dakotas as Black Buffalo
- 1948 Fury at Furnace Creek as Little Dog (uncredited)
- 1951 Red Mountain as Little Crow
- 1954 Saskatchewan as Cajou
- 1943 The Girl from Monterrey as Fighter Tito Flores
- 1965 Indian Paint as Chief Hevatanu
- 1951 The Wild Blue Yonder as Benders
- 1953 Jack McCall, Desperado as Red Cloud
- 1958 Return to Warbow as Indian Joe
- 1955 The Vanishing American as Beeteia
- 1954 Masterson of Kansas as Yellow Hawk
- 1953 The Nebraskan as Spotted Bear
- 1972 In Pursuit of Treasure
- 1952 The Pathfinder as Chingachgook
- 1949 The Cowboy and the Indians as Lakohna
- 1954 Four Guns to the Border as Yaqui
- 1948 Family Honeymoon as Elevator Boy (uncredited)
- 1950 Broken Arrow as Geronimo (uncredited)
- 1952 Brave Warrior as Chief Tecumseh
- 1953 War Arrow as Satanta
- 1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited)
- 1949 Sand as Indian (uncredited)
- 1969 True Grit as Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)
- 1952 The Battle at Apache Pass as Geronimo
- 1956 Walk the Proud Land as Geronimo
- 1952 The Legend Of The Lone Ranger as Tonto
- 2002 The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s
- 1949 Lust for Gold as Walter
- 1948 Key Largo as Tom Osceola (uncredited)
- 1942 Perils of Nyoka as Tuareg
- 1940 Kit Carson as Indian
- 1947 Gas House Kids Go West as Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited)
- 1949 Laramie as Running Wolf (uncredited)
- 1953 Last of the Comanches as Indian (uncredited)
- 1940 The Sea Hawk as Native Lookout
- 1940 Too Many Girls as Indian (uncredited)
- 1949 Trail of the Yukon as Poleon
- 1947 The Prairie as Running Deer
- 1941 This Woman Is Mine as Indian Marauder
- 1941 Western Union as Indian
- 1948 Singin' Spurs as Abel
- 1942 Valley of the Sun as Indian (uncredited)
- 1969 Smith! as McDonald Lasheway
- 1948 Yellow Sky as Indian (uncredited)
- 1944 Lost in a Harem as Guard at Execution (uncredited)
- 1944 I Am an American as Indian (uncredited)
- 2001 Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes as Tonto
- 1959 Alias Jesse James as Tonto (uncredited)
- 1971 Cat Ballou as Indian Chief
- 2013 The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man as Tonto
- 1958 The Western: A Lost TV Special as Self
- 1940 Hudson's Bay as Indian (uncredited)
- 1947 The Last Round-up
- Soon A Different Drum as Jim Swift Hands
- 1944 Passage to Marseille as Sailor Crewman on Boat Deck (uncredited)
- 1969 The Brady Bunch ( 1 episode ) as Chief Eagle Cloud
- 1971 Cannon ( 1 episode )
- 1966 Pistols 'n' Petticoats ( 1 episode )
- 1959 Rawhide ( 1 episode ) as Pawnee Joe
- 1964 Daniel Boone ( 1 episode ) as Sashona
- 1965 Branded ( 1 episode )
- 1958 Wanted: Dead or Alive ( 1 episode ) as Charley Red Cloud
- 1949 The Lone Ranger ( 221 episodes ) as Tonto
- 1964 Daniel Boone ( 1 episode ) as Chenrogan
- 1964 Daniel Boone ( 1 episode ) as Latawa
- 1962 The Virginian ( 1 episode ) as Den'Gwatzi
- 1962 The Virginian ( 1 episode ) as Spotted Hand
- 1961 Gunslinger ( 1 episode ) as Hopi Indian
- 1966 Pistols 'n' Petticoats ( 1 episode ) as Great Bear
