Date of Birth
14 September 1914,
Chicago, Illinois, USA (some sources say 1908)
Date of Death
28 December 1999, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart attack)
Birth Name
Jack Carlton Moore
Nickname
Clay
Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)
Mini Biography
Clayton Moore grew up in Illinois and was a circus acrobat at the age of eight. He would work his way up to aerialist with two circuses and also appear at the 1934 World's Fair. He then went to New York, where he found work as a male model. Hollywood was his next stop and he entered films in 1938 as a bit player and stuntman. In 1940, at the suggestion of producer Edward Small, he changed his first name to Clayton. He appeared in "B" pictures and serials through 1942, then entered the military. After the war he returned to these supporting roles while concentrating on westerns. By 1949 he was playing the "Masked Man", but that man was Zorro in Ghost of Zorro (1949). In 1949 he was hired to appear in "The Lone Ranger" (1949), the television version of the long-running radio show. One thing he had to do was to work on his voice so that he sounded like the radio Lone Ranger. When he got that right, he became famous, along with Tonto, on the small screen. He was The Lone Ranger from 1949 to 1952, when he was fired in a salary dispute. Along with William Boyd ("Hopalong Cassidy"), Moore was one of the most popular TV western stars of the era. He was replaced by John Hart, but Hart's tenure was terminated after one season. It was during his time away from the TV show that Moore returned to the big screen to continue his movie career with such memorable movies as Radar Men from the Moon (1952) and Jungle Drums of Africa (1953). Hired back to the series, at a higher salary, Moore remained as The Lone Ranger until the series ended in 1957, after 169 episodes. He appeared in two color big-screen movies continuations of that character, in The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958). After a lifetime of "B" movie parts, Clayton Moore finally found success in a TV series and continued to make commercials and personal appearances as "The Lone Ranger" for the next three decades. At his appearances, he preached the Ranger's Code of good behavior, which he also practiced, and that image was never tarnished by the types of personal scandals that often affected other stars. In 1975 the Wrather Corp., which owned the series and the rights to the title character, got a court order to stop Moore from appearing in public as "The Lone Ranger". The company planned to film a new big-screen movie of the popular hero and did not want the public to confuse its new star with the old one. It would be the only screen appearance for Clinton Spilsbury , this "new Lone Ranger". Although appearing rugged and good looking in the "umasked" sequence , his voice projected so poorly it was overdubbed by a more gifted speaker.The film was one of the biggest flops of the 1980s, however, and Moore was given permission to again appear as "The Lone Ranger".
IMDb Mini Biography By:
Tony Fontana
Spouse
Trivia
Best remembered as TV's "The Lone Ranger."
Inducted into the Stuntman's Hall of Fame in 1982.
Received the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1990.
"The Lone Ranger" premiered on WXYZ-AM radio in Detroit, MI, in 1933. The show was created because WXYZ, a small station, could not afford network programs. After getting the role in the TV series "The Lone Ranger" (1949), Moore had to train his voice to sound more like the radio Lone Ranger, Brace Beemer. Moore's favorite character was "The Ol' Prospector", in which the Lone Ranger would dress up as a crotchety old miner and infiltrate places to gather information. He used the character on his home answering machine in Calabasas, CA, and would greet callers with it.
He had a history of heart trouble, and died at 9:20 am PST of a heart attack.
Liked to quote and live by "The Lone Ranger Creed" written by Fran Striker around 1940, which began, "I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one" and included moral lessons such as, "God put the firewood there, but every man must gather and light it himself".
He is the only person to have a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame with both his name AND the character he was famous for playing. His star says, "Clayton Moore, The Lone Ranger".
Adopted a baby girl, Dawn Angela, in December of 1958.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1990.
Was a stuntman for many years before becoming "The Lone Ranger". During 1952 when the producers of "The Lone Ranger" (1949) replaced him for a year with John Hart due to a salary dispute, he appeared under the name of Rex Moore as a "Ryker" in Shane (1953). It was a brief part consisting of a memorable fight scene between Shane and the Ryker family.
"The Lone Ranger" (1949) premiered on September 15, 1949, exactly one day after his 35th birthday.
Of the nearly 200 appearances Moore made with co-star Jay Silverheels, they appeared together in just three features where they did NOT play The Lone Ranger and Tonto: Perils of Nyoka (1942), The Cowboy and the Indians (1949), and The Black Dakotas (1954).
During his hiatus from "The Lone Ranger" (1949) in 1952-53 he appeared in three serials: Radar Men from the Moon (1952), Son of Geronimo: Apache Avenger (1952) and Jungle Drums of Africa (1953).
In an earlier "masked" role, he was the title character in Ghost of Zorro (1949).
From 1982 to 1999, though resuming public appearances as "The Lone Ranger", Clayton Moore appeared under the name of Jerry Potter in many roles on screen and TV. As Jerry Potter, he portrayed the general store owner in Misery (1990), Jacob Walker in The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987) (TV) and George Washington in the screen version of Wild Wild West (1999).
"Silvercup Bread" was the original sponsor of "The Lone Ranger" on radio. Hence, the use of silver bullets and his horse named "Silver".
Appears as The Lone Ranger, with his horse Silver, on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Early TV Memories issue honoring "The Lone Ranger" (1949), issued 11 August 2009.
Published an autobiography, "I Was That Masked Man".
Personal Quotes
Playing him [the Lone Ranger] made me a better person.
Once I got the Lone Ranger role, I didn't want any other. I was playing the good guy.
[on 2/4/85, about his Lone Ranger costume] I will continue wearing the white hat and black mask until I ride up into the big ranch in the sky.
[in 1982] Clayton Moore and The Lone Ranger are one and the same. I'm proud that I decided to wear the white hat for the rest of my life.
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