About
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...
Known for
The VirginianSeries • 1962
CannonSeries • 1971
Daniel BooneSeries • 1964
RawhideSeries • 1959
Wanted: Dead or AliveSeries • 1958
The Lone RangerSeries • 1949
The Brady BunchSeries • 1969
BrandedSeries • 1965
The Treasure of the Sierra MadreMovie • 1948
Broken ArrowMovie • 1950
True GritMovie • 1969
Key LargoMovie • 1948
The Lone RangerMovie • 1956
The Sea HawkMovie • 1940
One Little IndianMovie • 1973
Last of the ComanchesMovie • 1953
Western UnionMovie • 1941
The Battle at Apache PassMovie • 1952
Yellow SkyMovie • 1948
The Man Who Loved Cat DancingMovie • 1973
Alias Jesse JamesMovie • 1959
Passage to MarseilleMovie • 1944
SaskatchewanMovie • 1954
Lust for GoldMovie • 1949