Cast
Jay Silverheels
Acting
Cast
Jay Silverheels
Known for
Acting
Born
1912-05-26
From
Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Died
1980-03-05
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.
★7.3
MOVIE1969
True Grit
as Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)
★8.0
MOVIE1948
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
as Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited)
★6.7
MOVIE1950
Broken Arrow
as Geronimo (uncredited)
★6.3
MOVIE1956
The Lone Ranger
as Tonto
★5.9
MOVIE1969
Smith!
as McDonald Lasheway
★6.7
MOVIE1968
The Movie Orgy
as Tonto (archive footage)
★6.3
MOVIE1948
Family Honeymoon
as Elevator Boy (uncredited)
★6.0
MOVIE1954
Saskatchewan
as Cajou
★7.5
MOVIE1948
Key Largo
as Tom Osceola (uncredited)
★7.2
MOVIE1940
The Sea Hawk
as Native Lookout
★6.0
MOVIE1959
Alias Jesse James
as Tonto (uncredited)
★6.2
MOVIE1953
Last of the Comanches
as Indian (uncredited)
★6.0
MOVIE1941
Western Union
as Indian
★7.2
MOVIE1947
Captain from Castile
as Coatl (uncredited)
★6.7
MOVIE1951
Red Mountain
as Little Crow
★6.0
MOVIE1952
Yankee Buccaneer
as Lead Warrior
★6.2
MOVIE1943
Northern Pursuit
as Indian (uncredited)
★7.0
MOVIE1948
Yellow Sky
as Indian (uncredited)
★6.3
MOVIE1973
One Little Indian
as Jimmy Wolf
★3.7
MOVIE1970
The Phynx
as Tonto
★7.0
MOVIE1952
The Half-Breed
as Apache (uncredited)
★5.8
MOVIE1953
War Arrow
as Satanta
★5.6
MOVIE1944
Lost in a Harem
as Guard at Execution (uncredited)
★5.8
MOVIE1954
Drums Across the River
as Taos
★6.0
MOVIE1949
Lust for Gold
as Walter
★5.9
MOVIE1956
Walk the Proud Land
as Geronimo
★6.4
MOVIE1949
Tulsa
as Creek Indian (uncredited)
★7.3
MOVIE1947
The Last Round-up
★5.0
MOVIE1954
Four Guns to the Border
as Yaqui
★6.3
MOVIE1948
Fury at Furnace Creek
as Little Dog (uncredited)
★6.6
MOVIE1958
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
as Tonto
★6.1
MOVIE1940
Kit Carson
as Indian
★5.8
MOVIE1973
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
as The Chief
★6.6
MOVIE1943
The Phantom
as Astari Warrior (uncredited)
★4.2
MOVIE1952
Brave Warrior
as Chief Tecumseh
MOVIE1967
Pistols 'n' Petticoats
as Great Bear
★6.1
MOVIE1948
The Feathered Serpent
as Diego (uncredited)
★4.8
MOVIE1952
The Pathfinder
as Chingachgook
★5.5
MOVIE1973
Santee
as John Crow
★6.7
MOVIE1955
The Vanishing American
as Beeteia
★6.6
MOVIE1952
The Battle at Apache Pass
as Geronimo
★7.0
MOVIE1951
The Wild Blue Yonder
as Benders
★5.9
MOVIE1940
Too Many Girls
as Indian (uncredited)
★3.8
MOVIE1953
The Nebraskan
as Spotted Bear
★6.1
MOVIE1940
Hudson's Bay
as Indian (uncredited)
★7.0
MOVIE1949
The Cowboy and the Indians
as Lakohna
★4.5
MOVIE1941
This Woman Is Mine
as Indian Marauder
★5.6
MOVIE1949
Sand
as Indian (uncredited)
★5.5
MOVIE1954
The Black Dakotas
as Black Buffalo
MOVIE1958
The Western: A Lost TV Special
as Self
★8.0
MOVIE1943
The Girl from Monterrey
as Fighter Tito Flores
★5.9
MOVIE1958
Return to Warbow
as Indian Joe
★6.3
MOVIE1942
Valley of the Sun
as Indian (uncredited)
MOVIE2002
The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s
★6.1
MOVIE1954
Masterson of Kansas
as Yellow Hawk
★7.0
MOVIETBA
A Different Drum
as Jim Swift Hands
★8.0
MOVIE1942
Perils of Nyoka
as Tuareg
★10.0
MOVIE1972
In Pursuit of Treasure
★6.5
MOVIE1947
The Prairie
as Running Deer
★6.6
MOVIE1952
The Legend Of The Lone Ranger
as Tonto
MOVIE2013
The Lone Ranger: Who Was That Masked Man
as Tonto
★7.5
MOVIE1949
Trail of the Yukon
as Poleon
★6.0
MOVIE1953
Jack McCall, Desperado
as Red Cloud
★6.4
MOVIE1944
I Am an American
as Indian (uncredited)
★6.8
MOVIE1949
Laramie
as Running Wolf (uncredited)
★7.0
MOVIE1948
Singin' Spurs
as Abel
MOVIE2001
Lone Ranger: Lost Episodes
as Tonto
★6.5
MOVIE1947
Gas House Kids Go West
as Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited)
★8.0
MOVIE1960
Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge
as Natchez
★9.0
MOVIE1944
Tahiti Nights
as Lua
★6.0
MOVIE1965
Indian Paint
as Chief Hevatanu
★7.0
MOVIE1971
Cat Ballou
as Indian Chief