Clayton Moore

Early life

Born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 14, 1914, Jack Carlton Moore was the youngest of three sons of Theresa Violet (née Fisher) and Charles Sprague Moore. Moore's father, according to the federal census of 1930, was a native of New York and supported his family in Chicago by working as a real estate broker. That same census also documents that a full-time maid, Amelia Hirsch, lived with the Moore family, an indication of the household's relative prosperity at the time.

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. He graduated from Stephen K. Hayt Elementary School, Sullivan Junior High School, and Senn High School on the far North Side of Chicago.

Career

Modelling and acting

Moore as a young man worked successfully as a John Robert Powers model. Moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s, he worked as a stuntman and bit player between modelling 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, including Ghost of Zorro (in which his character wore a black mask) and in two films for Columbia Pictures.

Military service

During World War II, Moore 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.

The Lone Ranger

In 1949, Moore's work on the Ghost of Zorro serial drew the attention of George W. Trendle, co-creator and producer of a popular radio series titled The Lone Ranger. The series' running plot involved the exploits of a mysterious former Texas Ranger, the sole survivor of a Ranger posse ambushed by a gang of outlaws, who roamed the West with his Indian companion Tonto to battle evil and help the downtrodden. When Trendle brought the radio program to television, Moore landed the title role. With the "March of the Swiss Soldiers" finale from Rossini's William Tell overture as their theme music, 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. Moore later said he received no explanation from the producers as to why he was replaced or why he was rehired. The fourth season of The Lone Ranger was again filmed in black and white; however, the fifth and final season of the series was the only one to be shot in color. In all, Moore starred in 169 of the 221 episodes produced.

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. He 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 Lone 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 (including at several short-lived Lone Ranger Restaurants in Southern California), 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.

One of Moore's personal appearances in character became the basis of a story that actor Jay Thomas told every year around Christmas beginning in 2000 on The Late Show with David Letterman. Thomas was a radio disc jockey at the time in North Carolina and happened to be doing a show at a car dealership where Moore was appearing in character as The Lone Ranger. Moore had been stranded at the dealership, and Thomas offered him a ride back to his hotel. On the way, a passing motorist struck Thomas' Volvo with enough force to break a headlight. Thomas gave chase and eventually cornered the man in a parking lot where he threatened to press charges. The driver of the other car taunted Thomas by saying nobody would believe his story, but Moore emerged from the back seat of the car — still wearing his costume — and said "they'll believe me, citizen" to the stunned driver. With one exception, Thomas returned to Letterman's show to tell the story every December until Letterman's retirement.

Later life and death

In 1964 Moore moved to Golden Valley, Minnesota, with his wife and daughter to be closer to his wife's family in Minneapolis. He obtained a Minnesota real estate license, established Ranger Realty, and helped to develop the area that is now north of Interstate 394 near the Louisiana Avenue exit. During that time, Moore once came upon the scene of a crime and untied a grocery store manager shortly after the store had been robbed, apparently quipping: "You have just been rescued by the Lone Ranger." At the end of his life he was married to Clarita Moore (née Petrone); he also had an adopted daughter.

Moore died on December 28, 1999 at the age of 85 at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack at his home in nearby Calabasas. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.

Autobiography

I Was That Masked Man, by Clayton Moore with Frank Thompson, Taylor Publishing Company, 1996 – ISBN 0-87833-939-6