#jay silverheels

May 26

Happy Birthday, Jay Silverheels (1912-1980)

Jay Silverheels

May 26, 1912 – March 5, 1980

☆ 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 in 1949.

He began working in motion pictures as an extra and stuntman in 1937 and in 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).