Clayton Moore Biography
Clayton Moore was an American actor who delighted television fans during the 1950s as the title character in the series The Lone Ranger. He portrayed the masked crusader who pursued villains with a hearty call to his horse.
As a young man, Moore worked successfully as a John Robert Powers model. Moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s, he worked as a stuntman and bit player between modeling jobs. Moore in his 1996 autobiography I Was That Masked Man noted that Hollywood producer Edward Small persuaded him around 1940 to adopt the stage name “Clayton”.
Subsequently, he was cast as an occasional player in B westerns and the lead in four Republic Studio cliffhangers and in two films for Columbia Pictures. Moore took part During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and served with that branch’s First Motion Picture Unit making training films, such as Target-Invisible, in which Moore co-starred with fellow actor Arthur Kennedy.
Moore was so identified with the masked man that he is the only person on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as of 2006, 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 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Moore also was awarded a place on the Western Walk of Fame in Old Town Newhall, California.
Clayton Moore Age
Moore was born on 14th September 1914, Chicago, Illinois in the United States.
Clayton Moore Family
Moore was born on September 14, 1914, in Chicago Illinois, United States. Moore was the youngest of three sons of Theresa Violet and Charles Sprague Moore. Moore’s father was a native of Chicago who worked as a real estate broker.
He graduated from Stephen K. Hayt Elementary School, Sullivan Junior High School, and Senn High School on the far North Side of Chicago. Highly athletic as a boy, “Jack” became a circus acrobat by age eight, and later, in 1934, he appeared at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago with a trapeze act.
Clayton Moore Spouse
Moore was married to four wives, Mary Moore who was the first from 1940-1942. Sally Allen Moore who was the second from 1943-1986, Connie Moore was the third from 1986-1989. Lastly, he got married to his fourth wife Clarita Moore from 1992-1999 who survived him after his death.
Clayton Moore As The Lone Ranger
In 1949, Moore’s work in the Ghost of Zorro serial drew the attention of George Trendle. Moore and co-star Jay Silverheels made history as the stars of the first Western written specifically for television. The Lone Ranger soon became the highest-rated program to that point on the fledgling ABC network and its first true hit. It earned an Emmy Award nomination in 1950.
Moore was replaced in the third season by John Hart, reportedly due to a contract dispute, but he returned for the final two seasons. Clayton later said he received no explanation from the producers as to why he was replaced or why he was rehired. Moore appeared in other television series during his Lone Ranger run, including a 1952 episode of Bill Williams’ syndicated Western. The Adventures of Kit Carson guest-starred in two episodes of Jock Mahoney’s series The Range Rider in 1952 and 1953.
Silverheels and he also starred in two feature-length one Ranger motion pictures. After completion of the second feature, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, in 1958, Moore began 40 years of personal appearances, TV guest spots, and classic commercials as the legendary masked man. Silverheels joined him for occasional reunions during the early 1960s. Throughout his career, Moore expressed respect and love for Silverheels.
Clayton Moore Net Worth
Moore had an estimated net worth of $1 million dollars at the time of his death.
Clayton Moore Height | How Tall was Clayton Moore
Moore stands at a height of 1.85 m.
Clayton Moore Daughter
He had an adopted daughter, Dawn Angela Moore. Dawn Moore has been sharing the life and legacy of her father who passed away in 1999. “I still get letters from policemen, firemen, and teachers who say they chose a career in service because of him,” said Dawn from Los Angeles. Dawn will be recalling stories about her father at this year’s Lone Pine Film Festival, held Oct. 10-12.
One of her father’s famous Lone Ranger black masks will be sold through the Profiles in History auction house. As a child, Dawn didn’t even know her father had been the Lone Ranger until one day the pair went shopping for a television and the salesperson recognized his voice. “I was 8 or 9, and wondered how this stranger knew my father,” she recalled. “The show ended in 1957 so I never saw it growing up. And when we went out, no one recognized him because his character had always been masked.”
When Did Clayton Moore Die? | Clayton Moore Grave | What Did Clayton Moore Die Of?
Clayton Moore died on December 28, 1999, in a West Hills, California, hospital after suffering a heart attack at his home in nearby Calabasas. He was survived by his fourth wife, Clarita Moore, and an adopted daughter, Dawn Angela Moore. Moore was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.
Clayton Moore Jay Silverhills
Jay Silverheels was a Mohawk actor and athlete. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the faithful Native American companion of the Lone Ranger in the long-running American western television series The Lone Ranger. Silverheels spoofed his Tonto character in a Stan Freberg Jeno’s Pizza Rolls TV commercial opposite Clayton Moore, and in The Phynx, opposite John Hart, both having played The Lone Ranger in the original television series. Jay suffered a stroke in 1976, and the following year, Clayton Moore rode a paint horse in Silverheels’ honor in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade.
Clayton Moore and John Hart
John Lewis Hart, also credited as John Hilton was an American film and television actor. In his early career, Hart appeared mostly in Westerns. Although Hart played mostly minor roles in some fairly well-known films, he was probably best known for having replaced Clayton Moore in 1952 in the television series, The Lone Ranger for one season from 1952 until 1953.
Clayton Moore Photos | Clayton Moore Images
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.
Clayton Moore Movies
- The Greatest American Hero
- Lassie
- The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold
- The Lone Ranger
- The Red Skelton Hour
- Apache Ambush
- The Lone Ranger Story
- Passion
- The Black Dakotas
- The Gene Autry Show
- Gunfighters of the Northwest
- Annie Oakley
- The Range Rider
- Down Laredo Way
- Bandits of CorsicaKansas Pacific
- Jungle Drums of Africa
- Hopalong Cassidy
- The Legend of the Lone Ranger
- The Raiders
- Son of Geronimo: Apache Avenger
- The Adventures of Kit Carson