Update: Clayton Moore, TV's "Lone Ranger," 85

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

http://www.cnn.com/1999/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/28/obit.moore/index.html

Clayton Moore, the 'Lone Ranger,' dead at 85

December 28, 1999
Web posted at: 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT)


>From Dennis Michael
CNN Entertainment News Correspondent

WEST HILLS, California (CNN) -- Clayton Moore, the actor forever identified
with the Lone Ranger character, died of a heart attack Tuesday morning at
West Hills Hospital, about 20 miles north of Los Angeles. He was 85.

The man behind the mask was originally a trapeze artist and model who came
to acting through stunt work. Clayton, born Jack Carlton Moore on September
14, 1914 in Chicago, changed his name when he moved to Hollywood.

There, he graduated from stunts to bit roles, and finally, became the
leading man in many Saturday afternoon serials in the late 30s and '40s.

When the radio program "The Lone Ranger" was transplanted to television in
1949 on the brand new ABC network, Moore took the role of his life.

Moore played the Lone Ranger from 1949 to 1951, riding his trusty horse
Silver and accompanied by his faithful American-Indian friend Tonto as the
pair brought law and order to the Old West in every half-hour episode. When
he sat out a contract dispute with the producers, actor John Hart took over
the role for two years. But Moore completed the show's run until it was
canceled in 1957.

The show was ABC's biggest hit for a time in the early '50s, when the
fledgling network was far overshadowed by CBS and NBC. Fans loved the show's
trademarks: the opening theme, from "The William Tell Overture"; the
Ranger's horse, Silver, described by the show's announcer as "a fiery horse
with the speed of light"; Tonto's name for the Ranger, "kemo sabe"; the
silver bullets; the Ranger's habits of never shooting to kill and never
removing his mask, unless the plot had him donning some other disguise.

Who was that masked man?
Even after the cancellation, Moore continued to wear a mask in public
appearances until 1979, when producers of a new film version of "The Lone
Ranger" won a court order forcing him to replace his mask with a pair of
wraparound sunglasses.

"Once I got the Lone Ranger role, I didn't want any other," Moore said in a
1985 Los Angeles Times interview. "I like playing the good guy." He said
that as a child, "I wanted to be either a cowboy or a policeman. As the Lone
Ranger, I got to be both."

But Moore had his comeuppance. The 1981 movie, entitled "The Legend of the
Lone Ranger" and starring Klinton Spilsbury in the mask, was a resounding
flop. In 1984, a court lifted the restraining order.

He was largely retired in recent years, living at his home in Calabasas. He
and his late wife, former actress Sally Allen, had one daughter, Gwen.

At the opening of a museum honoring his fellow screen cowboy, Gene Autry
talked about the importance of the heroes of the Old West, real and
otherwise.

"It's the good guy in the white hat, fair play and honesty," Autry said.
"The settling of the Old West. Don't forget the cowboys, the trials and
tribulations they went through. What we have now is because of our ancestors
and pioneers."

And that's true of Moore as well, one of the pioneers of the early
television frontier.



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