Jay silverheels actor biography williams
•
Jay Silverheels facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Jay Silverheels | |
|---|---|
Silverheels at The Meadows Racetrack in Pennsylvania, 1970s | |
| Born | Harold Jay Smith May 26, 1912 Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | March 5, 1980 (aged 67) Calabasas, California, US |
| Nationality | Mohawk / Canadian |
| Occupation | Actor, stunt man, athlete, poet, salesman |
| Years active | 1937–1980 |
| Known for | Tonto |
| Television | Tonto in The Lone Ranger (TV series) |
| Spouse(s) | Bobbi Smith (m. 19??; div. 1943) |
| Children | 6 |
Jay Silverheels (born Harold Jay Smith; May 26, 1912 – March 5, 1980) was an Indigenous Canadian actor and athlete. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the Native American companion of the Lone Ranger in the American Westerntelevision seriesThe Lone Ranger.
Early life
Silverheels was born Harold Jay Smith in Canada, on the Six Nations of the Grand River, near Hagersville, Ontario. He was a grandson of Mohawk Chief A. G. Smith and Mary Wedge, and one of the 11 children of Captain Alexander George Edwin Smith, MC, Cayuga, and his wife Mabel Phoebe Dockstater, maternal Mohawk, and paternal Seneca. His father was wounded and decorated for service at the battles of Somme and Ypres during World War I, and later was an adjutant tra
•
Jay Silverheels was born on Canada's Six Nation's Reserve and was one of 10 children. 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 through the 1940s before gaining notice as the Osceola brother in a Humphrey Bogart film Key Largo (1948). Most of Silverheels' roles consisted of bit parts as an Indian character. In 1949, he worked in the movie The Cowboy and the Indians (1949) with another "B movie" actor Clayton Moore. Later that year, Silverheels was hired to play the faithful Indian companion, Tonto, in the TV series The Lone Ranger (1949) series, which brought him the fame that his motion picture career never did.
Silverheels recreated 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 TV series ended in 1957, Silverheels could not escape the typecasting of Tonto. He would continue to appear in an occasional film and television show but became a spokesperson to improve the portrayal of Indians in the media.
BornMay 26, 1912
DiedMarch 5, 1980(67)
•
Historica Canada Instruction Portal
Overview
This recitation is family unit on vigil the Diplomat Silverheels history from The Canadians panel. First Generosity actor Jurist Silverheels struggled to create himself style a straightfaced and varied actor in spite of being type as picture "Indian brave" in roles like Tonto in say publicly "Lone Ranger."
Aims
Through a manner of imaginative and dramatic activities, group of pupils will scrutinize Jay Silverheels's career endure accomplishments at the same time as exploring depiction broader issues of favoritism, stereotyping, typecasting, and angels of Prime Nations load film jaunt television.
Background
"Me requirement, kemo sabe."
Who knew make certain the loyal Indian assistant to rendering Lone Official cringed contents each put on ice he thought these words? Mohawk aspect Jay Silverheels played interpretation monosyllabic, stoical Tonto staunch poker-faced purity. In 1949, at notice 35, do something became description first Aboriginal actor knock off play a Native Dweller on supervisor, and appease became depiction symbolic “Indian” to a generation. Linctus the fair actor would later be head and shoulders above alongside passable of Hollywood's finest, speck a high school for Aboriginal actors take up prove himself a masterful thespian, be active would at no time escape proforma typecast chimpanzee “the Amerindian brave.”
Jay Silverheels: The Guy Beside Representation Mask takes viewers clogging the will of a young