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One Little Indian

as Jimmy Wolf

1973
Santee

as John Crow

1973
Indian Paint

as Chief Hevatanu

1965
The Lone Ranger

as Tonto

1956
The Vanishing American

as Beeteia

1955
War Arrow

as Satanta

1953
Saskatchewan

as Cajou

1954
Masterson of Kansas

as Yellow Hawk

1954
The Pathfinder

as Chingachgook

1952
The Lone Ranger

as Tonto

1949
Lust for Gold

as Walter

1949
Sand

as Indian (uncredited)

1949
Enter the Lone Ranger

as Tonto

1949
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Jay Silverheels Jay Silverheels

Birthday

1912-05-26

Place of Birth

Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada

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.
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