Jay Silverheels

Personal Info

Know For

Acting

Gender

Male

Birthday

1912-05-26 (68 years old)

Deathday

1980-03-05

Place of Birth

Six Nations Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada

Jay Silverheels

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, whi...

Acting

1948

The Feathered Serpent

as Diego (uncredited)

1968

The Movie Orgy

as Tonto (archive footage)

1944

1970

The Phynx

as Tonto

1973

One Little Indian

as Jimmy Wolf

1952

Yankee Buccaneer

as Lead Warrior

1973

Santee

as John Crow

1947

Captain from Castile

as Coatl (uncredited)

1943

Northern Pursuit

as Indian (uncredited)

1943

The Phantom

as Astari Warrior (uncredited)

1952

The Half-Breed

as Apache (uncredited)

1967

1956

1949

Tulsa

as Creek Indian (uncredited)

1954

The Black Dakotas

as Black Buffalo

1948

Fury at Furnace Creek

as Little Dog (uncredited)

1951

Red Mountain

as Little Crow

1954

Saskatchewan

as Cajou

1943

The Girl from Monterrey

as Fighter Tito Flores

1965

Indian Paint

as Chief Hevatanu

1951

1953

1958

Return to Warbow

as Indian Joe

1954

Masterson of Kansas

as Yellow Hawk

1953

The Nebraskan

as Spotted Bear

1952

The Pathfinder

as Chingachgook

1948

Family Honeymoon

as Elevator Boy (uncredited)

1950

Broken Arrow

as Geronimo (uncredited)

1952

Brave Warrior

as Chief Tecumseh

1953

War Arrow

as Satanta

1948

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

as Indian Guide at Pier (uncredited)

1949

Sand

as Indian (uncredited)

1969

True Grit

as Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)

1956

1949

Lust for Gold

as Walter

1948

Key Largo

as Tom Osceola (uncredited)

1942

1940

Kit Carson

as Indian

1947

Gas House Kids Go West

as Kingsley's Henchman (uncredited)

1949

Laramie

as Running Wolf (uncredited)

1953

Last of the Comanches

as Indian (uncredited)

1940

The Sea Hawk

as Native Lookout

1940

1949

1947

The Prairie

as Running Deer

1941

This Woman Is Mine

as Indian Marauder

1941

Western Union

as Indian

1948

1942

1969

Smith!

as McDonald Lasheway

1948

Yellow Sky

as Indian (uncredited)

1944

Lost in a Harem

as Guard at Execution (uncredited)

1944

I Am an American

as Indian (uncredited)

1959

Alias Jesse James

as Tonto (uncredited)

1971

Cat Ballou

as Indian Chief

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