Jay Silverheels
Acting • Born 1912-05-26 – Died 1980-03-05
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.
Filmography
84 credits
The Feathered Serpent
Movie • 1948
Diego (uncredited)
The Movie Orgy
Movie • 1968
Tonto (archive footage)
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge
Movie • 1960
Natchez
Tahiti Nights
Movie • 1944
Lua
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
Movie • 1973
The Chief
The Phynx
Movie • 1970
Tonto
One Little Indian
Movie • 1973
Jimmy Wolf
Yankee Buccaneer
Movie • 1952
Lead Warrior
Santee
Movie • 1973
John Crow
Captain from Castile
Movie • 1947
Coatl (uncredited)
Northern Pursuit
Movie • 1943
Indian (uncredited)
The Phantom
Movie • 1943
Astari Warrior (uncredited)
The Half-Breed
Movie • 1952
Apache (uncredited)
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
Movie • 1967
Great Bear
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
Movie • 1958
Tonto
The Lone Ranger
Movie • 1956
Tonto
Drums Across the River
Movie • 1954
Taos
Tulsa
Movie • 1949
Creek Indian (uncredited)
The Black Dakotas
Movie • 1954
Black Buffalo
Fury at Furnace Creek
Movie • 1948
Little Dog (uncredited)
Red Mountain
Movie • 1951
Little Crow
Saskatchewan
Movie • 1954
Cajou
The Girl from Monterrey
Movie • 1943
Fighter Tito Flores
Indian Paint
Movie • 1965
Chief Hevatanu
The Wild Blue Yonder
Movie • 1951
Benders
Jack McCall, Desperado
Movie • 1953
Red Cloud
Return to Warbow
Movie • 1958
Indian Joe
The Vanishing American
Movie • 1955
Beeteia
Masterson of Kansas
Movie • 1954
Yellow Hawk
The Nebraskan
Movie • 1953
Spotted Bear
In Pursuit of Treasure
Movie • 1972
The Pathfinder
Movie • 1952
Chingachgook
The Cowboy and the Indians
Movie • 1949
Lakohna
Four Guns to the Border
Movie • 1954
Yaqui
Family Honeymoon
Movie • 1948
Elevator Boy (uncredited)
Broken Arrow
Movie • 1950
Geronimo (uncredited)
Brave Warrior
Movie • 1952
Chief Tecumseh
War Arrow
Movie • 1953
Satanta
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Movie • 1948
Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited)
Sand
Movie • 1949
Indian (uncredited)
True Grit
Movie • 1969
Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)
The Battle at Apache Pass
Movie • 1952
Geronimo
Walk the Proud Land
Movie • 1956
Geronimo
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger
Movie • 1952
Tonto
The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s
Movie • 2002
Lust for Gold
Movie • 1949
Walter
Key Largo
Movie • 1948
Tom Osceola (uncredited)
Perils of Nyoka
Movie • 1942
Tuareg
Kit Carson
Movie • 1940
Indian
Gas House Kids Go West
Movie • 1947
Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited)
Laramie
Movie • 1949
Running Wolf (uncredited)
Last of the Comanches
Movie • 1953
Indian (uncredited)
The Sea Hawk
Movie • 1940
Native Lookout
Too Many Girls
Movie • 1940
Indian
Trail of the Yukon
Movie • 1949
Poleon
The Prairie
Movie • 1947
Running Deer
This Woman Is Mine
Movie • 1941
Indian Marauder
Western Union
Movie • 1941
Indian
Singin' Spurs
Movie • 1948
Abel
Valley of the Sun
Movie • 1942
Indian (uncredited)
Smith!
Movie • 1969
McDonald Lasheway
Yellow Sky
Movie • 1948
Indian (uncredited)
Lost in a Harem
Movie • 1944
Guard at Execution (uncredited)
I Am an American
Movie • 1944
Indian (uncredited)
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes
Movie • 2001
Tonto
Alias Jesse James
Movie • 1959
Tonto (uncredited)
Cat Ballou
Movie • 1971
Indian Chief
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man
Movie • 2013
Tonto
The Western: A Lost TV Special
Movie • 1958
Self
Hudson's Bay
Movie • 1940
Indian (uncredited)
The Last Round-up
Movie • 1947
The Brady Bunch
TV • 1969
Cannon
TV • 1971
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
TV • 1966
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Pawnee Joe
Daniel Boone
TV • 1964
Sashona
Branded
TV • 1965
Wanted: Dead or Alive
TV • 1958
Charley Red Cloud
The Lone Ranger
TV • 1949
Tonto
Daniel Boone
TV • 1964
Latawa
Daniel Boone
TV • 1964
Chenrogan
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Den'Gwatzi
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Spotted Hand
Gunslinger
TV • 1961
Hopi Indian