Clayton Moore
Encyclopedia
Clayton Moore was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 best known for playing the fictional western character The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....

 from 1949–1951 and 1954-1957 on the television series of the same name
The Lone Ranger (TV Series)
The Lone Ranger is an American western television series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action series initially featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator...

.

Early years

Born Jack Carlton Moore in Chicago, Illinois, Moore became a circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

 acrobat by age 8 and appeared at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago in 1934 with a trapeze act.

As a young man, Moore worked successfully as a John Robert Powers
John Robert Powers
John Robert Powers was an American actor and founder of a prominent New York City modeling agency.In 1923, John Robert Powers founded a modeling agency. The John Robert Powers Agency represented many models who went on to success in the Hollywood film industry, and even Betty Bloomer who became...

 model. Moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s, he worked as a stunt man and bit player between modeling jobs. According to his autobiography, around 1940 Hollywood producer Edward Small
Edward Small
Edward Small was a film producer from the late 1920s through 1970....

 persuaded him to adopt the stage name "Clayton" Moore. He was an occasional player in B westerns and the lead in four Republic Studio cliffhangers, and two for Columbia. Moore served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and made training films (Target--Invisible, etc.) with the First Motion Picture Unit
First Motion Picture Unit
The First Motion Picture Unit was the first unit of the United States Military to be made up entirely of motion picture personnel. It was also the title of a 1943 documentary about the unit.-Organization:...

.

As The Lone Ranger

Moore's career advanced in 1949, when George Trendle spotted him in the Ghost of Zorro
Ghost of Zorro
Ghost of Zorro is a Republic Movie serial. It uses substantial stock footage from earlier serials, including Son of Zorro and Daredevils of the West. This movie was shot in Chatsworth, Los Angeles.-Cast:...

serial. As creator-producer of The Lone Ranger radio show (with writer Fran Striker
Fran Striker
Fran Striker was an American writer for radio and comics, best known for creating The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, and Sgt...

), Trendle was about to launch the television version. Moore landed the role.

Moore trained his voice to sound like the radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 version of The Lone Ranger, which had then been on the air since 1933, and succeeded in lowering his already distinctive baritone even further. With the first notes of Rossini's "William Tell Overture
William Tell Overture
The William Tell Overture is the instrumental introduction to the opera Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music and secular vocal...

" and actor Gerald Mohr
Gerald Mohr
Gerald Mohr was an American radio, film and television character actor who appeared in over 4,000 radio plays, 73 films and over 100 television shows....

's "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear ... ," Moore and co-star Jay Silverheels
Jay Silverheels
Jay Silverheels was a Canadian Mohawk First Nations actor. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the faithful American Indian companion of the Lone Ranger in a long-running American television series. -Early life:...

, in the role of Tonto, made television history as the stars of the first Western written specifically for that medium. The Lone Ranger soon became the highest-rated program to that point on the fledgling ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 network and its first true hit, earning an Emmy nomination in 1950. Moore starred in 169 episodes of the television show.

Leaving series

After two successful years presenting a new episode every week, 52 weeks a year, Moore had a pay dispute and left the series. As "Clay Moore", he made a few more westerns and serials, sometimes playing the villain. Moore was replaced for a time by actor John Hart
John Hart (actor)
John Hart was an American motion picture and television actor, born in Los Angeles, California. In his early career, he appeared mostly in Westerns...

. Eventually the show's producers came to terms and rehired Moore. He stayed with the program until it ended first-run production in 1957. He and Jay Silverheels also starred in two feature-length
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 Lone Ranger motion pictures. Moore appeared in other series too, including a role in the 1952 episode "Snake River
Snake River
The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...

 Trapper" of Bill Williams
Bill Williams (actor)
Bill Williams was an American television and film actor. He is best known for his starring role in the early 1950 television show The Adventures of Kit Carson.-Career:...

's syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 western, The Adventures of Kit Carson
The Adventures of Kit Carson
The Adventures of Kit Carson is an American Western series that aired in syndication from August 1951 to November 1955, originally sponsored by Coca-Cola. It stars Bill Williams in the title role as frontier scout Christopher "Kit" Carson...

.

After completion of the second feature, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold in 1958, Moore embarked on what would be 40 years of personal appearances, TV guest spots, and classic commercials as the legendary masked man. Silverheels joined him for occasional appearances during the early 1960s. Throughout his career, Moore expressed respect and love for Silverheels.

The Finale or "cavalry charge" of the The William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini was used as the theme music for The Lone Ranger in the movies, serials, television and on radio and for Lark (cigarette)
Lark (cigarette)
Lark is a brand of cigarettes introduced in 1963 by Liggett & Myers and notable for its charcoal filter and past advertising campaigns, among which was one featuring people on the street being asked to "Show us your Lark pack".-Brand history and ownership:...

 television commercials in the 1960s. Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels appeared in Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg
Stanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...

's Jeno's Pizza Roll commercial, incorporating all three cultural icons.

Lawsuit over public appearances

In 1979, the owner of the Ranger character, Jack Wrather
Jack Wrather
John Devereaux "Jack" Wrather, Jr. , was a petroleum millionaire who became a television producer and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties...

, obtained a court order prohibiting Moore from making future appearances as The Lone Ranger. Wrather anticipated making a new film version of the story, and did not want the value of the character being undercut by Moore's appearances. Also, Wrather did not want to encourage the belief that the 65-year-old Moore would be playing the role in the new picture. This move proved to be a public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 disaster. Moore responded by changing his costume slightly and replacing the mask with similar-looking Foster Grant
Foster Grant
Foster Grant, or FosterGrant, is a brand of eyewear founded by Sam Foster in 1919. The FosterGrant brand is a subsidiary company of FGX International, a consumer goods wholesaler with headquarters in Smithfield, Rhode Island, USA....

 wraparound sunglasses, and by counter-suing Wrather. He eventually won the suit, and was able to resume his appearances in costume, which he continued to do until shortly before his death. For a time he worked in publicity tie-ins with the Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers (baseball)
The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have...

 baseball team. (Wrather's planned motion picture remake, The Legend of the Lone Ranger
The Legend of the Lone Ranger
The Legend of the Lone Ranger is a 1981 British-American western film directed by William A. Fraker and starring Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse and Christopher Lloyd....

, was released in 1981 and was a critical and commercial failure.)

Moore often was quoted as saying he had "fallen in love with the Lone Ranger character" and strove in his personal life to take The Lone Ranger Creed to heart. This, coupled with his public fight to retain the right to wear the mask, linked him inextricably with the character. In this regard, he was much like another cowboy star, William Boyd
William Boyd (actor)
William Lawrence Boyd was an American film actor best known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy.-Biography:...

, who portrayed the Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character....

 character. Moore was so identified with the masked man that he is the only person on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

, , to have his character's name along with his on the star, which reads, "Clayton Moore — The Lone Ranger". He was inducted into the Stuntman's Hall of Fame in 1982 and in 1990 was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...

 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

. Moore also was awarded a place on the Western Walk of Fame in Old Town Newhall, California
Newhall, California
Newhall is the southernmost and oldest district of Santa Clarita, California. Prior to the 1987 consolidation of Valencia, Canyon Country, Saugus, Newhall, and other geographically proximate settlements into the conglomerate city of Santa Clarita, it was an independent but unincorporated town...

.

Death

Clayton Moore died on December 28, 1999, in a West Hills, California, hospital after suffering a heart attack at his home in nearby Calabasas
Calabasas, California
Calabasas is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California in the western United States. It is located in the hills in the southwestern San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains between Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills, West Hills, and Malibu, California. As of the 2010 census, the city...

. He was survived by his fourth wife, Clarita Moore, and an adopted daughter, Dawn Angela Moore. Moore was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...

 in Glendale
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Film
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Note
|-
| 1937
| Forlorn River
Forlorn River
Forlorn River is a 1927 western novel by Zane Grey.-Plot introduction:Ben Ide spends his time chasing wild horses in Northern California, accompanied by the wanderer, Nevada and his Indian companion, Modoc. Rather than catching horses, he has earned the reputation of being a cattle rustler. But...


| Cowboy
| uncredited
|-
| 1937
| Thunder Trail
| Cowboy
| uncredited
|-
| 1938
| Go Chase Yourself
| Reporter
| uncredited
|-
|1939
| Burn 'Em Up O'Connor
| Hospital Interne
| as Jack Moore
|-
|1940
| Kit Carson
| Paul Terry
|
|-
|1940
| The Son of Monte Cristo
The Son of Monte Cristo
The Son of Monte Cristo is a 1940 black-and-white film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, and George Sanders....


| Lieutenant Fritz Dorner
|
|-
|1941
| International Lady
| Sewell
|
|-
|1941
| Tuxedo Junction
| Bill Bennett
|
|-
| 1942
| Black Dragons
Black Dragons
Black Dragons is a 1942 American film directed by William Nigh and starring Bela Lugosi, Loan Barclay, and George Pembroke. The Black Dragon Society also appears in Let's Get Tough! a 1942 East Side Kids film made by the same team of writer Harvey Gates and producer Sam Katzman.-Plot :It is prior...


| FBI Agent Richard 'Dick' Martin
|
|-
|1942
| Perils of Nyoka
Perils of Nyoka
Perils of Nyoka is a 1942 Republic Movie serial directed by William Witney. It starred Kay Aldridge as Nyoka the Jungle Girl, a character who first appeared in the Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired serial "Jungle Girl."-Plot:...


| Dr. Larry Grayson
|
|-
|1942
| Outlaws of Pine Ridge
| Lane Hollister
|
|-
| 1946
| The Bachelor's Daughters
| Bill Cotter
|
|-
|1946
| The Crimson Ghost
The Crimson Ghost
The Crimson Ghost is a Republic film serial directed by Fred C. Brannon and William Witney with Charles Quigley and Linda Stirling playing the leads. This was Witney's last serial, after a career that left him one of the most praised of all serial directors...


| Ashe
|
|-
| 1947
| Jesse James Rides Again
Jesse James Rides Again
Jesse James Rides Again is a Republic film serial.-Cast:* Clayton Moore as Jesse James* Linda Stirling as Ann Bolton. It was during filming of this serial that Linda Stirling met her future husband Sloane Nibley.* Roy Barcroft as Frank Lawton...


| Jesse James
|
|-
|1947
| Along the Oregon Trail
| Gregg Thurston
|
|-
|1948
| G-Men Never Forget
G-Men Never Forget
G-Men Never Forget is a Republic Movie serial. The serial was re-released as a film in 1966 under the title Code 645.-Cast:* Clayton Moore as Agent Ted O'Hara* Roy Barcroft as Vic Murkland/Commissioner Angus Cameron...


| Agent Ted O'Hara
|
|-
| 1948
| Marshal of Amarillo
| Art Crandall
|
|-
| 1948
| Adventures of Frank and Jesse James
Adventures of Frank and Jesse James
Adventures of Frank and Jesse James is a 1948 Republic film serial.-Cast:* Clayton Moore as Jesse James AKA John Howard* Steve Darrell as Frank James AKA Bob Carroll* Noel Neill as Judy Powell* George J...


| Jesse James
|
|-
| 1949
| The Far Frontier
The Far Frontier
The Far Frontier is a 1948 American film starring Roy Rogers....


| Tom Sharper
|
|-
| 1949
| Sheriff of Wichita
| Raymond D'Arcy
|
|-
| 1949
| Riders of the Whistling Pines
Riders of the Whistling Pines
Riders of the Whistling Pines is a 1949 American film directed by John English.- Cast :*Gene Autry as Gene Autry*Champion as Champion, Gene's Horse*Patricia Barry as Helen Carter*Jimmy Lloyd as Forester Joe Lucas*Douglass Dumbrille as Henry Mitchell...


| Henchman Pete
|
|-
| 1949
| Ghost of Zorro
Ghost of Zorro
Ghost of Zorro is a Republic Movie serial. It uses substantial stock footage from earlier serials, including Son of Zorro and Daredevils of the West. This movie was shot in Chatsworth, Los Angeles.-Cast:...


| Ken Mason/ el Zorro
|
|-
| 1949
| Frontier Investigator
| Scott Garnett
|
|-
| 1949
| The Cisco Kid
| Lieutenant
|
|-
| 1949
| South of Death Valley
| Brad
|
|-
| 1949
| Masked Raiders
| Matt Trevett
|
|-
|1949
| The Cowboy and the Indians
| Henchman Luke
|
|-
| 1949
| Bandits of El Dorado
| B. F. Morgan
|
|-
| 1949
| Sons of New Mexico
| Rufe Burns
|
|-
| 1949/1957
| The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger (TV Series)
The Lone Ranger is an American western television series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action series initially featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator...


| The Lone Ranger
| (TV series) 169 episodes
|-
|1952
| Son of Geronimo: Apache Avenger
Son of Geronimo: Apache Avenger
Son of Geronimo was the 50th film serial released by Columbia Pictures. It is based in the historical figure of Geronimo, prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache, who defended his people against the encroachment of the United States on their tribal lands for over 25...


| Jim Scott
| as Clay Moore
|-
|1952
| Radar Men from the Moon
Radar Men from the Moon
Radar Men from the Moon is the first Commando Cody serial, in 12 chapters, starring newcomer George Wallace as Cody and Aline Towne as his sidekick Joan Gilbert, with serial veteran Roy Barcroft as the evil Retik, the Ruler of the Moon. The director was Fred C...


| Graber
|
|-
| 1953
| Jungle Drums of Africa
Jungle Drums of Africa
Jungle Drums of Africa is a 12-episode, American serial film, shot in black-and-white, which was an original commissioned screenplay by Ronald Davidson produced by Franklin Adreon and directed by Fred C. Brannon for Republic Pictures...


| Alan King
| as Clay Moore
|-
| 1953
| Kansas Pacific
Kansas Pacific (film)
Kansas Pacific is a 1953 U.S. Cinecolor western film released by Allied Artists Pictures and directed by Ray Nazarro. It stars Sterling Hayden and Eve Miller. The movie offers a fictionalized account of the struggle to build the Kansas Pacific Railway in the 1860s during the American Civil War...


| Henchman Stone
|
|-
| 1953
| The Bandits of Corsica
The Bandits of Corsica
The Bandits of Corsica is a 1953 American adventure film directed by Ray Nazarro and starring Richard Greene, Paula Raymond and Raymond Burr. In the eighteenth century a pair of twin brothers overthrow a sadistic aristocrat...


| Ricardo
|
|-
| 1953
| Down Laredo Way
| Chip Wells
|
|-
| 1954
| Gunfighters of the Northwest
Gunfighters of the Northwest
Gunfighters of the Northwest was the 53rd serial released by Columbia Pictures. Its was enterily filmed on location at Big Bear Lake, California, USA, and not a single scene was filmed in indoors setting-Plot:NW Mounted Police Sgt...


| Bram Nevin
|
|-
| 1955
| The Lone Ranger Rides Again
| The Lone Ranger
| (1955 film)
|-
| 1956
| The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger (1956 film)
The Lone Ranger is a Western film based on the TV show The Lone Ranger, starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels.-Plot:Set in the American Southwest, the territorial governor enlists the help of the Lone Ranger to investigate mysterious raids on white settlers. Native Americans who ride with...


| The Lone Ranger
| (1956 film)
|-
| 1958
| The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold is a Western film based on the TV show The Lone Ranger, starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels....


| The Lone Ranger
| (1958 film)

Autobiography

  • I Was That Masked Man, by Clayton Moore with Frank Thompson, Taylor Publishing Company, 1996 - ISBN 0-87833-939-6

Firearm


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK