Jay Silverheels

Also Known As: Harold J. Smith, Harry Silversmith, Harry Smith

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.

Department: Acting

Place of Birth: Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada

Adult: No

Birthday: May 26, 1912

Age: 112 years old

Gender: Male

Deathday: March 05, 1980

Popularity:

1.74%

Known For:

The Feathered Serpent
The Movie Orgy
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge
Tahiti Nights
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
The Phynx
One Little Indian
Yankee Buccaneer
Santee
Captain from Castile
Northern Pursuit
The Phantom
The Half-Breed
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
Drums Across the River
Tulsa
The Black Dakotas
Fury at Furnace Creek
Red Mountain
Saskatchewan
The Girl from Monterrey
Indian Paint
The Wild Blue Yonder
Jack McCall, Desperado
Return to Warbow
The Vanishing American
Masterson of Kansas
The Nebraskan
In Pursuit of Treasure
The Pathfinder
The Cowboy and the Indians
Four Guns to the Border
Family Honeymoon
Broken Arrow
Brave Warrior
War Arrow
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Sand
True Grit
The Battle at Apache Pass
Walk the Proud Land
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger
Enter the Lone Ranger
The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s
Lust for Gold
Key Largo
Perils of Nyoka
Kit Carson
Gas House Kids Go West
Laramie
Last of the Comanches
The Sea Hawk
Too Many Girls
Trail of the Yukon
The Prairie
This Woman Is Mine
Western Union
Singin' Spurs
Valley of the Sun
Smith!
Yellow Sky
Lost in a Harem
I Am an American
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes
Alias Jesse James
Cat Ballou
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man