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.
71 movies · 11 shows
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man
2013·0.0
The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s
2002·0.0
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes
2001·0.0
Santee
1973·5.5
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
1973·5.8
One Little Indian
1973·6.3
In Pursuit of Treasure
1972·10.0
Cat Ballou
1971·7.0
The Phynx
1970·3.5
True Grit
1969·7.3
Smith!
1969·5.9
The Movie Orgy
1968·6.7
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
1967·0.0
Indian Paint
1965·6.0
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge
1960·8.0
Alias Jesse James
1959·6.0
The Western: A Lost TV Special
1958·0.0
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
1958·6.6
Return to Warbow
1958·5.9
Walk the Proud Land
1956·5.9
The Lone Ranger
1956·6.2
The Vanishing American
1955·6.7
Masterson of Kansas
1954·6.1
Four Guns to the Border
1954·5.0
The Black Dakotas
1954·5.5
Drums Across the River
1954·5.8
Saskatchewan
1954·6.0
War Arrow
1953·5.8
The Nebraskan
1953·3.8
Jack McCall, Desperado
1953·6.0
Last of the Comanches
1953·6.2
The Pathfinder
1952·4.8
Yankee Buccaneer
1952·6.0
Brave Warrior
1952·4.3
The Battle at Apache Pass
1952·6.6
The Half-Breed
1952·7.0
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger
1952·6.6
The Wild Blue Yonder
1951·7.0
Red Mountain
1951·6.7
Broken Arrow
1950·6.7
The Cowboy and the Indians
1949·7.0
Sand
1949·5.6
Trail of the Yukon
1949·7.5
Lust for Gold
1949·6.0
Laramie
1949·6.8
Tulsa
1949·6.4
Yellow Sky
1948·7.0
The Feathered Serpent
1948·6.1
Family Honeymoon
1948·6.3
Singin' Spurs
1948·7.0
Key Largo
1948·7.5
Fury at Furnace Creek
1948·6.3
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1948·8.0
Captain from Castile
1947·7.2
The Prairie
1947·6.5
The Last Round-up
1947·7.3
Gas House Kids Go West
1947·6.5
Tahiti Nights
1944·9.0
I Am an American
1944·6.4
Lost in a Harem
1944·5.6
The Phantom
1943·6.6
Northern Pursuit
1943·6.1
The Girl from Monterrey
1943·8.0
Perils of Nyoka
1942·8.0
Valley of the Sun
1942·6.3
This Woman Is Mine
1941·4.5
Western Union
1941·6.0
Hudson's Bay
1940·6.1
Too Many Girls
1940·5.9
Kit Carson
1940·6.1
The Sea Hawk
1940·7.2