Jay Silverheels
1912-05-26 ( 112 years old ) in Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada

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.

Movies

The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s 2002-10-13
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes 2001-05-29
Santee 1973-09-01
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing 1973-06-28
One Little Indian 1973-06-20
In Pursuit of Treasure 1972-03-17
Cat Ballou 1971-09-06
The Phynx 1970-03-06
True Grit 1969-06-11
Smith! 1969-03-21
The Movie Orgy 1968-01-01
Pistols 'n' Petticoats 1967-09-05
Indian Paint 1965-04-08
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge 1960-03-04
Alias Jesse James 1959-03-20
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold 1958-06-04
Return to Warbow 1958-01-15
Walk the Proud Land 1956-09-01
The Lone Ranger 1956-02-25
The Vanishing American 1955-11-17
Masterson of Kansas 1954-12-01
Four Guns to the Border 1954-11-05
The Black Dakotas 1954-09-02
Drums Across the River 1954-06-01
Saskatchewan 1954-03-30
War Arrow 1953-12-26
The Nebraskan 1953-12-02
Jack McCall, Desperado 1953-04-01
Last of the Comanches 1953-02-01
The Pathfinder 1952-12-09
Yankee Buccaneer 1952-09-16
Brave Warrior 1952-05-31
The Battle at Apache Pass 1952-05-09
The Half-Breed 1952-05-03
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger 1952-01-01
The Wild Blue Yonder 1951-12-05
Red Mountain 1951-11-01
Broken Arrow 1950-08-01
The Cowboy and the Indians 1949-09-15
Enter the Lone Ranger 1949-09-15
Sand 1949-08-03
Trail of the Yukon 1949-07-31
Lust for Gold 1949-06-10
Laramie 1949-05-19
Tulsa 1949-04-13
Yellow Sky 1948-12-24
The Feathered Serpent 1948-12-19
Family Honeymoon 1948-12-06
Singin' Spurs 1948-09-22
Key Largo 1948-07-16
Fury at Furnace Creek 1948-04-30
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948-01-15
Captain from Castile 1947-12-25
The Prairie 1947-11-27
Gas House Kids Go West 1947-06-12
Tahiti Nights 1944-12-28
I Am an American 1944-12-23
Lost in a Harem 1944-12-01
The Phantom 1943-12-24
Northern Pursuit 1943-11-07
The Girl from Monterrey 1943-10-04
Perils of Nyoka 1942-06-27
Valley of the Sun 1942-02-06
This Woman Is Mine 1941-08-22
Western Union 1941-02-21
Too Many Girls 1940-10-08
Kit Carson 1940-08-30
The Sea Hawk 1940-08-10
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man

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