Jay Silverheels episode of ABC's "The Brady Bunch", as a Native American who befriends the Bradys in the Grand Canyon, and in an episode of the short-lived "Dusty's Trail", starring Bob Denver of "Gilligan's Island". In the early 1960s, Silverheels supported the Indian Actors Workshop, where Native American actors refined their skills in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Today the workshop is firmly established. Jay Silverheels raised, bred and raced Standardbred horses in his spare time. Once, when asked about possibly running Tonto's paint horse Scout in a race, Jay laughed off the idea: "Heck, "I" can outrun Scout!" Married in 1945, Silverheels
Jay Silverheels was the father of three girls (Marilyn, Pamela and Karen) and a boy Jay Anthony Silverheels, who later became an actor. Silverheels 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. Silverheels died on March 5, 1980, from complications of a at age sixty-seven, in Calabasas, Los Angeles County, California. He was cremated at Chapel of the Pines Crematory, and his ashes were returned to the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. In 1993, Jay Silverheels was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers