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.
Fotos
Películas (74)
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man
2013 · Tonto
The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s
2002
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes
2001 · Tonto
Santee
1973 · John Crow
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
1973 · The Chief
One Little Indian
1973 · Jimmy Wolf
In Pursuit of Treasure
1972
Cat Ballou
1971 · Indian Chief
The Phynx
1970 · Tonto
True Grit
1969 · Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)
Smith!
1969 · McDonald Lasheway
The Movie Orgy
1968 · Tonto (archive footage)
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
1967 · Great Bear
Indian Paint
1965 · Chief Hevatanu
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge
1960 · Natchez
Alias Jesse James
1959 · Tonto (uncredited)
The Western: A Lost TV Special
1958 · Self
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
1958 · Tonto
Return to Warbow
1958 · Indian Joe
Walk the Proud Land
1956 · Geronimo
The Lone Ranger
1956 · Tonto
The Vanishing American
1955 · Beeteia
The Lone Ranger Story
1955 · Self - Tonto
Masterson of Kansas
1954 · Yellow Hawk
Four Guns to the Border
1954 · Yaqui
The Black Dakotas
1954 · Black Buffalo
Drums Across the River
1954 · Taos
Saskatchewan
1954 · Cajou
War Arrow
1953 · Satanta
The Nebraskan
1953 · Spotted Bear
Jack McCall, Desperado
1953 · Red Cloud
Last of the Comanches
1953 · Indian (uncredited)
The Pathfinder
1952 · Chingachgook
Yankee Buccaneer
1952 · Lead Warrior
Brave Warrior
1952 · Chief Tecumseh
The Battle at Apache Pass
1952 · Geronimo
The Half-Breed
1952 · Apache (uncredited)
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger
1952 · Tonto
The Wild Blue Yonder
1951 · Benders
Red Mountain
1951 · Little Crow
Broken Arrow
1950 · Geronimo (uncredited)
The Cowboy and the Indians
1949 · Lakohna
Sand
1949 · Indian (uncredited)
Trail of the Yukon
1949 · Poleon
Lust for Gold
1949 · Walter
Laramie
1949 · Running Wolf (uncredited)
Tulsa
1949 · Creek Indian (uncredited)
Yellow Sky
1948 · Indian (uncredited)
The Feathered Serpent
1948 · Diego (uncredited)
Family Honeymoon
1948 · Elevator Boy (uncredited)
Singin' Spurs
1948 · Abel
Key Largo
1948 · Tom Osceola (uncredited)
Fury at Furnace Creek
1948 · Little Dog (uncredited)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1948 · Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited)
Captain from Castile
1947 · Coatl (uncredited)
The Prairie
1947 · Running Deer
The Last Round-up
1947
Gas House Kids Go West
1947 · Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited)
Tahiti Nights
1944 · Lua
I Am an American
1944 · Indian (uncredited)
Lost in a Harem
1944 · Guard at Execution (uncredited)
Passage to Marseille
1944 · Sailor Crewman on Boat Deck (uncredited)
The Phantom
1943 · Astari Warrior (uncredited)
Northern Pursuit
1943 · Indian (uncredited)
The Girl from Monterrey
1943 · Fighter Tito Flores
Perils of Nyoka
1942 · Tuareg
Valley of the Sun
1942 · Indian (uncredited)
This Woman Is Mine
1941 · Indian Marauder
Western Union
1941 · Indian
Hudson's Bay
1940 · Indian (uncredited)
Too Many Girls
1940 · Indian (uncredited)
Kit Carson
1940 · Indian
The Sea Hawk
1940 · Native Lookout
A Different Drum
· Jim Swift Hands
Series (10)
Cannon
1971
The Brady Bunch
1969 · Chief Eagle Cloud
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
1966 · Great Bear
Branded
1965
Daniel Boone
1964 · Sashona, Latawa, Chenrogan
The Virginian
1962 · Den'Gwatzi, Spotted Hand
Gunslinger
1961 · Hopi Indian
Rawhide
1959 · Pawnee Joe
Wanted: Dead or Alive
1958 · Charley Red Cloud
The Lone Ranger
1949 · Tonto