A Fiery Horse with the Speed of Light, a Cloud of Dust, and a Hearty 'Hi-Yo, Silver, Away

A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty 'Hi-yo, Silver, away!

Jay Silverheels The man beside the Mask

TIM PHILP, FOR THE EXPOSITOR, Saturday, August 9, 2008 12:00:00 EDT AM

This was the exciting moment kids waited for as they sat around their radios -- or later, their televisions -- as they prepared to the hear the adventures of their favourite Western hero: The Lone Ranger! The intro was always accompanied by a stirring snippet of Rossini's William Tell Overture, music that became so linked with this show that nobody over 50 can hear the music without hearing the hoof beats of galloping horses.

Most young listeners idolized the Lone Ranger, but few gave much thought to his faithful Indian companion, Tonto. Still, the actor who played Tonto was creating a presence for himself and millions of fans who had never before experienced a native hero on television or in the movies. Jay Silverheels' portrayal of Tonto was not what would pass for culturally sensitive in today's racial climate. He spoke in Pidgin English with fractured grammar and was always subservient to the Lone Ranger. Still, he was not the bloodthirsty savage that was the commonly accepted stereotype of an Indian of the 1950s.

Even though he was a sidekick, Tonto was a hero, representing a tremendous departure from film and television portrayal of natives. Most were portrayed by white men and women in make-up, not by actual natives at all. After the TV series ended in 1957, Silverheels reprised his Tonto character for many years, in commercials and spoofs. His fame in the role gave him some clout in the film industry and he used it to advance the cause of native people.

"Jay made no bones about his displeasure with the Indian stereotype," his brother, George Smith, writes. "He strove unceasingly to change the screen's Indian stereotype and to promote better roles and opportunities for Indian actors." Silverheels' niece, Joyce Kesmarki, said he was pleased to be starring in a hit show, but not with his character. "He wanted to be more himself instead of the starchy person who said, 'How, me Tonto' and that sort of thing. He didn't like that too much." "I thought he was a good actor," added his brother, Les. "He was really acting when he played those parts. He understood the image." "He was very, very frustrated, like a lot of native actors," said Michael Horse, who later played Tonto in the 1981 film The Legend of the Lone Ranger.

In 1966, Silverheels founded the Indian Actors' Workshop for the study of the theatre arts, which also became a door-opener for many young native actors. One of his students was Horse. "He told us when we do get the opportunity, when those roles do squeak by, we need to be ready," Horse said. "He fought the good fight for us." As part of his activism, he also became an active member of the ethnic minorities committee of the Screen Actors' Guild.

Jay Silverheels was born Harold J. Smith on the Six Nations Reserve (Territory), on May 26, 1912, to Captain A. G. E. Smith and his wife Mabel Phoebe -- both full-blooded Mohawks (Mabel’s mom was Mohawk but dad was Seneca). Most sources report a birth date of June 26th 1919, but George Smith confirms the earlier date in his correspondence. Silverheels came from a large family of seven (nine) siblings and his early years were spent in training for athletics. He excelled in any sport that he tried and he became a wrestler, a boxer and a lacrosse player as well as participating in many other sports.

It was in wrestling and boxing where he really shone capturing two wrestling championships and finishing second in the Eastern Square finals of the Golden Gloves boxing championship in Madison Square Garden. He also was a member of Canada's national lacrosse team. It was because of his speed and the white running shoes that he wore that he earned the sobriquet "silverheels," which would stick with him the rest of his life, eventually leading to a legalized name change.

During a visit to the United States in 1938 with the lacrosse team, Silverheels caught the attention of comedian Joe E. Brown. The Hollywood star took Silverheels under his wing and got him into the acting business. "Naturally, that was the end of his lacrosse career," George says in a letter detailing Silverheels' accomplishments.

"To start off, Jay played bit parts in whatever parts his agent could get for him," Smith writes. "It wasn't long before he started to get speaking parts in movies with established stars in the male and female leading roles. As a result of mentoring, he found work as a stuntman in various films in Hollywood, California; however, most of the acting jobs that he was able to pick up were bit parts as an 'Indian.' " Silverheels served in the military in the Second World War (not true), then returned to Hollywood, where he first came to notice as one of the Osceola brothers in the Humphrey Bogart film Key Largo (1948).

In 1949, Silverheels met a B actor who was working on a 1949 film called The Cowboy and the Indians. That meeting with Clayton Moore changed his life; Moore became the Lone Ranger in the television series and Silverheels was hired to play Tonto. Silverheels would play Tonto throughout the series, except for a period when he was recovering from a heart attack and was replaced by the Lone Ranger's nephew, Dan Moore. Clayton Moore, however, did not make the third season and was replaced due to a contract dispute over money. He settled his differences with the studio and played the Lone Ranger for the rest of the 169-episode run of the series until it ended in 1957.

Silverheels' fame led to several roles in high-profile movies, beginning with the western classic Broken Arrow (1950) where he played an uncredited role as the Apache leader Geronimo, the first of several times he would play this character. Silverheels acted with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Tyrone Power Captain from Castile, Alan Ladd Saskatchewan, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson Key Largo, Henry Fonda Drums Along the Mohawk, Burt Reynolds The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, Jimmy Stewart Broken Arrow, Audie Murphy Drums Across the River, and John Wayne True Grit.

On July 19, 1974, in what would be his last public appearance, Silverheels was honoured with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, the 1,707th star placed there. The honours with awards from First Americans in the Arts Hall of Honor, and the Hall of Great Western Performers in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. He also received awards from the Western New York Entertainment Hall of Fame and the National Centre for American Indian Enterprise Development, with the Jay Silverheels Achievement Award given to an outstanding individual of Native American descent who has achieved personal and professional success while contributing to the community.

He was also inducted into the Walk of Fame here in Brantford as well as being honoured by the Brantford Collegiate Alumni as a Distinguished Alumnus. In 1975, Silverheels suffered a series of strokes that left him partially paralyzed. Another stroke finally killed him on March 5, 1980, in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was cremated and his ashes were brought back to Six Nations and scattered on the family homestead. (not confirmed)

The landscape has changed considerably for minority actors since Jay Silverheels first appeared on screen. While he was not able to portray natives as he wished, his presence on screen as a hero led to a change in the way that minorities were treated and cast in movies. Native actors such as Graham Greene and Michael Horse owe a great deal to Jay Silverheels for paving the way for them in a tough business.