Indian Actors Association Indian Actors Association. The Indian Actors Workshop was another group built on the foundation of the Indian Actors Association. Founded by Jay Silverheels, best known for playing Tonto on "The Lone Ranger", the Indian Actors Workshop trained Indians for roles in film and television. Similar groups continued to form well into the 1980s. The Indian Actors Association was able to function as a support group and provided subsistence funds for out of work Indians. They were able to raise these funds through membership dues, powwows, and performances for local clubs and organizations. Indian Actors Association The Indian Actors Association was
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