Jay Silverheels

Jay Silverheels (born Harold Jay Smith; May 26, 1912 – March 5, 1980) was a First Nations and Mohawk actor and athlete, descended from three Iroquois nations. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the Native American companion of the Lone Ranger in the American Western television series The Lone Ranger.

Early life Silverheels was born Harold Jay Smith in Canada, on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, near Hagersville, Ontario. was wounded and decorated for service at the battles of Somme and Ypres during World War I (Jay would have been four years old at this time), and later was an adjutant training Polish-American recruits for the Blue Army for service in France, at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

Athlete Silverheels excelled in athletics, most notably in lacrosse, before leaving home to travel around North America. In 1931, owners of National Hockey League's franchises in Toronto and Montreal created indoor lacrosse (also known as "box lacrosse") as a means to fill empty arenas during the summers. Playing as "Harry Smith", Silverheels was among the first players chosen to play for the Toronto Tecumsehs. He lived for a time in Buffalo, New York. In 1938, he placed second in the middleweight class of the Golden Gloves tournament held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Silverheels was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame as a veteran player in 1997.

Actor Films While playing in Los Angeles on a touring box lacrosse team in 1937, Silverheels impressed Joe E. Brown with his athleticism. in 1937. He was billed variously as Harold Smith and Harry Smith, and appeared in low-budget features, Westerns, and serials.

He adopted his screen name from the nickname he had as a lacrosse player. Jay Silverheels was cast in a short feature film, I Am an American (1944). From the late 1940s, he played in major films, including Captain from Castile starring Tyrone Power (1947), Key Largo with Humphrey Bogart (1948), Lust for Gold with Glenn Ford (1949), Broken Arrow (1950) with James Stewart, War Arrow (1953) with Maureen O'Hara, Jeff Chandler and Noah Beery Jr., The Black Dakotas (1954) as Black Buffalo, Drums Across the River (1954), Walk the Proud Land (1956) with Audie Murphy and Anne Bancroft, Alias Jesse James (1959) with Bob Hope, and Indian Paint (1964) with Johnny Crawford. He made a brief appearance in True Grit (1969) as a condemned criminal about to be executed. He played a substantial role as John Crow in Santee (1973), starring Glenn Ford. One of his last roles was a wise, white-haired chief in The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973).

Television Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto: Moore is riding Silver, while Silverheels is riding Scout. Jay Silverheels achieved his greatest fame as Tonto on The Lone Ranger TV series (1949–1957). Silverheels appeared in the film sequels: The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958).

When The Lone Ranger television series ended, Silverheels continued to be typecast as a Native American. On January 6, 1960, he portrayed a Native American firefighter trying to extinguish a forest fire in the episode "Leap of Life" in the syndicated series, Rescue 8, starring Jim Davis and fellow Canadian Lang Jeffries.

Silverheels appeared in an episode of the TV series Love, American Style. The segment, "Love and the Test of Manhood", first aired on February 11, 1972.

Eventually, he went to work as a salesman to supplement his acting income. He also began to publish poetry inspired by his youth on the Six Nations Indian Reserve and recited his work on television. In 1966, he guest-starred as John Tallgrass in the short-lived ABC comedy/Western series The Rounders, with Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne, and Chill Wills.

Despite the typecasting, Silverheels in later years often poked fun at his character. In 1969, he appeared as Tonto without the Lone Ranger in a comedy sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The sketch was featured on the 1974 record album Here's Johnny: Magic Moments from the Tonight Show. "My name is Tonto. I hail from Toronto and I speak Esperanto." In 1970, he appeared in a commercial for Chevrolet as a Native American chief who rescues two lost hunters, who had ignored his advice, in that year's Chevy Blazer. The William Tell Overture is heard in the background.

Silverheels spoofed his Tonto character, opposite Clayton Moore, in a Stan Freberg Jeno's Pizza Rolls TV commercial, which was set to the music of the William Tell Overture, and in The Phynx opposite John Hart, who also played the Lone Ranger in the original television series.

He appeared in three 1964/5 episodes of NBC's Daniel Boone, starring Fess Parker in the title role.

His later appearances included an episode of ABC's The Brady Bunch, as a Native American who befriends the Bradys in the Grand Canyon, and in an episode of the short-lived Dusty's Trail, starring Bob Denver of Gilligan's Island.

In the early 1960s, Silverheels supported the Indian Actors Workshop, where Native American actors refined their skills in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Today, the workshop is firmly established.

Personal life Silverheels raised, bred, and raced Standardbred horses in his spare time. Once, when asked about possibly running Tonto's paint horse Scout in a race, Jay laughed off the idea: "Heck, I can outrun Scout!"

Married twice, Silverheels had two sons (Steve, with his first wife; Jay Anthony Jr., who followed his father into acting) and four daughters (Marilyn, Gail, Pamela, and Karen).

Death Silverheels suffered a stroke in 1976, Silverheels died on March 5, 1980, from a stroke, He was cremated at Chapel of the Pines Crematory, and his ashes were returned to the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. He named a pacer "Hi Ho Silverheels".

Selected filmography

Make a Wish (1937) – Indian Guide (uncredited) The Sea Hawk (1940) – Native Lookout (uncredited) Kit Carson (1940) – Indian (uncredited) Too Many Girls (1940) – Indian (uncredited) Hudson's Bay (1941) – Indian (uncredited) Western Union (1941) – Indian (uncredited) Jungle Girl (1941, Serial) – Lion Man Guard [Chs. 2–3, 15] (uncredited) This Woman Is Mine (1941) – Indian Marauder (uncredited) Valley of the Sun (1942) – Indian (uncredited) Perils of Nyoka (1942, Serial) – Tuareg (uncredited) Good Morning, Judge (1943) – Indian (uncredited) Daredevils of the West (1943, Serial) – Kiaga [Ch. 8–9] (uncredited) The Girl from Monterrey (1943) – Fighter Tito Flores Northern Pursuit (1943) – Indian (uncredited) The Phantom (1943, Serial) – Astari Warrior (uncredited) Passage to Marseille (1944) – Sailor Crewman on Boat Deck (uncredited) The Tiger Woman (1944, Serial) – Native at Shack Shoot-Out [Ch. 7] (uncredited) Call of the Jungle (1944) – Native (uncredited) Haunted Harbor (1944, Serial) – Native [Chs. 11–12] (uncredited) Lost in a Harem (1944) – Guard at Execution (uncredited) Tahiti Nights (1944) – Lua (uncredited) Song of the Sarong (1945) – Spearman (uncredited) Romance of the West (1946) – Young Bear (uncredited) Singin' in the Corn (1946) – Indian Brave Gas House Kids Go West (1947) – Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited) Northwest Outpost (1947) – Indian Scout (uncredited) Unconquered (1947) – Indian (uncredited) The Last Round-up (1947) – Sam Luther (uncredited) The Prairie (1947) – Running Deer Captain from Castile (1947) – Coatl (uncredited) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) – Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited) Fury at Furnace Creek (1948) – Little Dog (uncredited) Key Largo (1948) – Tom Osceola (uncredited) Singin' Spurs (1948) – Abel Family Honeymoon (1948) – Elevator Boy (uncredited) The Feathered Serpent (1948) – Diego (uncredited) Yellow Sky (1948) – Indian (uncredited) Song of India (1949) – Villager (uncredited) Tulsa (1949) – Creek Indian (uncredited) Laramie (1949) – Running Wolf (uncredited) Lust for Gold (1949) – Deputy Walter (uncredited) Trail of the Yukon (1949) – Poleon Sand (1949) – Indian (uncredited) The Cowboy and the Indians (1949) – Lakoma Broken Arrow (1950) – Geronimo (uncredited) The Wild Blue Yonder (1951) – Benders Red Mountain (1951) – Little Crow The Battle at Apache Pass (1952) – Geronimo The Half-Breed (1952) – Apache (uncredited) Brave Warrior (1952) – Tecumseh The Story of Will Rogers (1952) – Joe Arrow (uncredited) Yankee Buccaneer (1952) – Lead Warrior The Pathfinder (1952) – Chingachgook The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1952) – Tonto Last of the Comanches (1953) – Indian (uncredited) Jack McCall, Desperado (1953) – Red Cloud The Nebraskan (1953) – Spotted Bear War Arrow (1953) – Satanta Saskatchewan (1954) (with Alan Ladd) – Cajou Drums Across The River (1954) (with Audie Murphy) – Taos The Black Dakotas (1954) – Black Buffalo Four Guns to the Border (1954) – Yaqui Masterson of Kansas (1954) – Yellow Hawk The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1955, TV Movie) – Tonto The Lone Ranger Story (1955) – Tonto The Vanishing American (1955) – Beeteia The Lone Ranger (1956) – Tonto Walk the Proud Land (1956) – Geronimo Return to Warbow (1958) – Indian Joe The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958) – Tonto Alias Jesse James (1959) – Tonto (uncredited) Indian Paint (1965) – Chief Hevatanu Smith! (1969) – McDonald Lasheway True Grit (1969) – Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited) The Phynx (1970) – Tonto In Pursuit of Treasure (1972) One Little Indian (1973) – Jimmy Wolf The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973) – The Chief Santee (1973) – John Crow

Television

The Lone Ranger, 217 episodes (1949–1957) – Tonto Wide Wide World, episode "The Western" (1958) – Himself Wanted Dead or Alive, S2/E14 "Man on Horseback" (1959) – Charley Red Cloud Walt Disney Presents: Texas John Slaughter, episode "Apache Friendship & Texas John Slaughter: Geronimo's Revenge" (1960) – Natchez Gunslinger, episode "The Recruit" (1961) – Hopi Indian Wagon Train, episode "Path of the Serpent" (1961) – The Serpent Rawhide, episode "The Gentleman's Gentleman" (1961) – Pawnee Joe Laramie, episode "The Day of the Savage" (1962) – Toma Daniel Boone, S1/E11 "Mountain of the Dead" (1964) – Chenrogan Daniel Boone, S1/E20 "The Quietists" (1965) – Latawa Branded, episode "The Test" (1965) – Wild Horse Daniel Boone, S2/E14 "The Christmas Story" (1965) – Sashona Gentle Ben, episode "Invasion of Willie Sam Gopher" (1967) – Willie Sam Gopher The Virginian, episode "The Heritage" (1968) – Den'Gwatzi The Brady Bunch, episode "The Brady Braves" (1971) – Chief Eagle Cloud The Virginian, episode "The Animal" (1971) – Spotted Hand Cannon, episode "Valley of the Damned" (1973) – Jimmy One Eye