Jay Silverheels

Jay Silverheels

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: Acting

Born: Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada, 1912-05-26

Died: 1980-03-05

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1940	The Sea Hawk	Native Lookout	71
2	1940	Kit Carson	Indian	61
3	1940	Too Many Girls	Indian	57
4	1941	Western Union	Indian	60
5	1941	This Woman Is Mine	Indian Marauder	37
6	1942	Valley of the Sun	Indian	58
7	1942	Perils of Nyoka	Tuareg	0
8	1943	The Girl from Monterrey	Fighter Tito Flores	0
9	1943	Northern Pursuit	Indian (uncredited)	59
10	1943	The Phantom	Astari Warrior (uncredited)	62
11	1944	Lost in a Harem	Guard at Execution (uncredited)	54
12	1944	I Am an American	Indian (uncredited)	53
13	1944	Tahiti Nights	Lua	0
14	1947	Gas House Kids Go West	Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited)	60
15	1947	The Prairie	Running Deer	60
16	1947	Captain from Castile	Coatl (uncredited)	71
17	1948	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited)	80
18	1948	Fury at Furnace Creek	Little Dog (uncredited)	60
19	1948	Key Largo	Tom Osceola (uncredited)	75
20	1948	Singin' Spurs	Abel	0
21	1948	Family Honeymoon	Elevator Boy (uncredited)	57
22	1948	The Feathered Serpent	Diego (uncredited)	58
23	1948	Yellow Sky	Indian (uncredited)	69
24	1949	Tulsa	Creek Indian (uncredited)	61
25	1949	Laramie	Running Wolf (uncredited)	65
26	1949	Lust for Gold	Walter	59
27	1949	Trail of the Yukon	Poleon	60
28	1949	Sand	Indian (uncredited)	45
29	1949	The Cowboy and the Indians	Lakohna	68
30	1950	Broken Arrow	Geronimo (uncredited)	67
31	1951	Red Mountain	Little Crow	64
32	1951	The Wild Blue Yonder	Benders	60
33	1952	The Legend Of The Lone Ranger	Tonto	60
34	1952	The Half-Breed	Apache (uncredited)	50
35	1952	The Battle at Apache Pass	Geronimo	63
36	1952	Brave Warrior	Chief Tecumseh	40
37	1952	Yankee Buccaneer	Lead Warrior	58
38	1952	The Pathfinder	Chingachgook	40
39	1953	Last of the Comanches	Indian (uncredited)	64
40	1953	Jack McCall, Desperado	Red Cloud	53
41	1953	The Nebraskan	Spotted Bear	30
42	1953	War Arrow	Satanta	56
43	1954	Saskatchewan	Cajou	59
44	1954	Drums Across the River	Taos	56
45	1954	The Black Dakotas	Black Buffalo	51
46	1954	Four Guns to the Border	Yaqui	46
47	1954	Masterson of Kansas	Yellow Hawk	58
48	1955	The Vanishing American	Beeteia	40
49	1956	The Lone Ranger	Tonto	62
50	1956	Walk the Proud Land	Geronimo	61
51	1958	Return to Warbow	Indian Joe	58
52	1958	The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold	Tonto	65
53	1959	Alias Jesse James	Tonto (uncredited)	59
54	1960	Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge	Natchez	0
55	1965	Indian Paint	Chief Hevatanu	53
56	1967	Pistols 'n' Petticoats	Great Bear	0
57	1968	The Movie Orgy	Tonto (archive footage)	65
58	1969	Smith!	McDonald Lasheway	55
59	1969	True Grit	Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)	73
60	1970	The Phynx	Tonto	35
61	1971	Cat Ballou	Indian Chief	0
62	1972	In Pursuit of Treasure		0
63	1973	One Little Indian	Jimmy Wolf	63
64	1973	The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing	The Chief	58
65	1973	Santee	John Crow	53
66	2001	Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes	Tonto	0
67	2002	The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s		0
68		The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man	Tonto	0

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1949	The Lone Ranger	Tonto	67
2	1958	Wanted: Dead or Alive	Charley Red Cloud	69
3	1959	Rawhide	Pawnee Joe	72
4	1962	The Virginian	Den'Gwatzi	65
5	1962	The Virginian	Spotted Hand	65
6	1964	Daniel Boone	Sashona	69
7	1964	Daniel Boone	Latawa	69
8	1964	Daniel Boone	Chenrogan	69
9	1965	Branded		64
10	1966	Pistols 'n' Petticoats		75
11	1969	The Brady Bunch		67
12	1971	Cannon		65

Jay Silverheels

Film

Television