- Clayton Moore
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Clayton Moore 
Clayton Moore as The Lone RangerBorn Jack Carlton Moore[1]
September 14, 1914
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.Died December 28, 1999 (aged 85)
West Hills, California, U.S.Occupation Actor Years active 1934–1999 Spouse Mary Moore (1940-1942)
Sally Allen (1943-1986) (her death) 1 child
Connie Moore (1986-1989)
Clarita Moore (1992-1999) (his death)Clayton Moore (September 14, 1914 – December 28, 1999) was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character The Lone Ranger from 1949–1951 and 1954-1957 on the television series of the same name.
Contents
Early years
Born Jack Carlton Moore in Chicago, Illinois, Moore became a circus acrobat by age 8 and appeared at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago in 1934 with a trapeze act.[2]
As a young man, Moore worked successfully as a John Robert Powers 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 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 and made training films (Target--Invisible, etc.) with the First Motion Picture Unit.
As The Lone Ranger
Moore's career advanced in 1949, when George Trendle spotted him in the Ghost of Zorro serial. As creator-producer of The Lone Ranger radio show (with writer Fran Striker), Trendle was about to launch the television version. Moore landed the role.
Moore trained his voice to sound like the radio 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" and actor Gerald Mohr's "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear ... ," Moore and co-star Jay Silverheels, 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 network and its first true hit, earning an Emmy nomination in 1950. Moore starred in 169 episodes of the television show.[3]
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. 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 Lone Ranger motion pictures. Moore appeared in other series too, including a role in the 1952 episode "Snake River Trapper" of Bill Williams's syndicated western, The Adventures of 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) television commercials in the 1960s. Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels appeared in Stan Freberg'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, obtained a court order prohibiting Moore from making future appearances as The Lone Ranger.[4] 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 disaster. Moore responded by changing his costume slightly and replacing the mask with similar-looking Foster Grant 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 baseball team. (Wrather's planned motion picture remake, The Legend of the Lone Ranger, 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, who portrayed the Hopalong Cassidy character. Moore was so identified with the masked man that he is the only person on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as of 2006[update], 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.
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. 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.[1][5][6][7]
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Note 1937 Forlorn River 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 Lieutenant Fritz Dorner 1941 International Lady Sewell 1941 Tuxedo Junction Bill Bennett 1942 Black Dragons FBI Agent Richard 'Dick' Martin 1942 Perils of Nyoka Dr. Larry Grayson 1942 Outlaws of Pine Ridge Lane Hollister 1946 The Bachelor's Daughters Bill Cotter 1946 The Crimson Ghost Ashe 1947 Jesse James Rides Again Jesse James 1947 Along the Oregon Trail Gregg Thurston 1948 G-Men Never Forget Agent Ted O'Hara 1948 Marshal of Amarillo Art Crandall 1948 Adventures of Frank and Jesse James Jesse James 1949 The Far Frontier Tom Sharper 1949 Sheriff of Wichita Raymond D'Arcy 1949 Riders of the Whistling Pines Henchman Pete 1949 Ghost of Zorro 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) 169 episodes 1952 Son of Geronimo: Apache Avenger Jim Scott as Clay Moore 1952 Radar Men from the Moon Graber 1953 Jungle Drums of Africa Alan King as Clay Moore 1953 Kansas Pacific Henchman Stone 1953 The Bandits of Corsica Ricardo 1953 Down Laredo Way Chip Wells 1954 Gunfighters of the Northwest Bram Nevin 1955 The Lone Ranger Rides Again The Lone Ranger (1955 film) 1956 The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger (1956 film) 1958 The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold The Lone Ranger (1958 film) References
- ^ a b "Clayton Moore, the 'Lone Ranger,' dead at 85". CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/1999/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/28/obit.moore/index.html. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
- ^ Goldstein, Richard (1999-12-29). "Clayton Moore, Television's Lone Ranger And a Persistent Masked Man, Dies at 85". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/29/arts/clayton-moore-television-s-lone-ranger-and-a-persistent-masked-man-dies-at-85.html?scp=1&sq=&pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ "Who's That Masked Man? Hi-Yo-It's Clayton Moore!". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1985-01-15/news/mn-7324_1_clayton-moore. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
- ^ Vallance, Tom (1999-12-30). "Obituary: Clayton Moore". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-clayton-moore-1135066.html. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
- ^ Stassel, Stephanie (1999-12-29). "Clayton Moore, TV's 'Lone Ranger,' Dies". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/29/news/mn-48531. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
- ^ "Lone Ranger star dies". BBC. 1999-12-29. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/581634.stm. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
Autobiography
- I Was That Masked Man, by Clayton Moore with Frank Thompson, Taylor Publishing Company, 1996 - ISBN 0-87833-939-6
Firearm
External links
- Jay Thomas talks about Clayton Moore on Letterman
- Clayton Moore at the Internet Movie Database
- Clayton Moore Memorial
- Clayton Moore at The Old Corral (b-westerns.com)
- Clayton Moore, Television's Lone Ranger And a Persistent Masked Man, Dies at 85, By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN, The New York Times, Published: December 29, 1999
Categories:- American film actors
- American television actors
- American military personnel of World War II
- Western (genre) film actors
- Film serial actors
- Actors from Chicago, Illinois
- 1914 births
- 1999 deaths
- Deaths from myocardial infarction
- Lone Ranger
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