Jay Silverheels - TV Career

TV Career

Silverheels achieved his greatest fame as the Lone Ranger's friend Tonto. Being irreplaceable as the Lone Ranger's best friend he subsequently also appeared in The Lone Ranger (1956) as well as in The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958).

Following the end of the Lone Ranger television series, Silverheels found himself firmly typecast as an American Indian hero. Eventually Silverheels had to work as a salesman to supplement his acting income. Simultaneously he began to publish poetry inspired by his youth on the Six Nations Indian Reserve and appeared on television reciting his works. 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 often poked fun at his character in later years. In 1969, he appeared as Tonto in a comedy sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, seeking new employment away from the Lone Ranger. The sketch was featured on the 1973 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 an Indian chief who rescues two lost hunters who ignored his advice in that model year's Chevy Blazer with the William Tell Overture playing in the background.

Silverheels also spoofed his Tonto character in a famous Stan Freberg Jeno's Pizza Rolls TV commercial opposite Clayton Moore, as well as in The Phynx, opposite John Hart, both actors having played The Lone Ranger in the original TV series.

He appeared in three episodes of Daniel Boone starring Fess Parker as the titular historical frontiersman.

Among his later appearances were an episode of The Brady Bunch, as an Indian chief who befriends the Bradys in the Grand Canyon, and an episode of the short-lived Dusty's Trail, starring Bob Denver of Gilligan's Island fame. (In the Brady Bunch episode, Alice makes a joke about meeting Tonto, before the Bradys meet Silverheels' character.)

In the early 1960s, Silverheels supported the Indian Actors Workshop, as an institution where American Indian actors refine their acting skills in Echo Park, California. Today the workshop is firmly established.