Best remembered for his role of "The Lone Ranger" on the television series of the same name. He was inducted into the Stuntman's Hall of Fame in 1982, and received the Western Heritage Award from the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1990. He is currently (as of 2004) the only person to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with both his name and the character he was known for playing; his star reads "Clayton Moore, the Lone Ranger."
Born Jack Carlton Moore, he grew up in Chicago and started as a circus acrobat at age 8, appearing as an aerialist at the 1934 World's Fair. He then went to New York City, where he worked as a male model, and entered the film world in 1938 as a bit player and stuntman. In 1940, at the suggestion of producer Eddie Small, he changed his first name to Clayton, and began appearing in B movies throughout the 1940s, mostly as a bad guy. His first role as the masked man was that of Zorro, in the movie "Ghost of Zorro" (1949). To win the part of the Lone Ranger on the television show, he had to change his voice to sound like the popular radio star of the Lone Ranger show.
With Jay Silverheels playing the part of Tonto, his faithful Indian companion, he was the Lone Ranger from the show's debut in 1949, until 1952, when he was fired in a salary dispute. At the time, he was television's most popular western star, but he was replaced by Jack Hart, who lasted only one season. Fans demanded the return of Clayton Moore and the next year he was rehired at an even larger salary, continuing in the series until its end in 1957. During his television unemployed period, he returned to making movies, including "Radar Men from the Moon" (1952) and "Jungle Drums of Africa" (1953), to enhance his movie career.
He also appeared as The Lone Ranger in two movies, "The Lone Ranger" (1956), and "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold" (1958). After the series ended, and for the next three decades, Clayton made commercials and personal appearances as The Lone Ranger, preaching the Ranger's Code of Good Conduct, which Moore also personally practiced. In 1975, Warner Brothers Studio wanted to make a new version of The Lone Ranger movie, and did not want the public to confuse the new star with Moore. When Moore refused to give up wearing the mask, they obtained a court order to prohibit his wearing it, and Moore switched to dark glasses.
Public rejection of the new Lone Ranger movie, combined with public anger over the studio's treatment of Moore, forced the Studio into granting permission for Moore to wear the mask again. In an interview, Moore once spoke of his role, "Once I got the Lone Ranger role, I didn't want any other. I was playing the good guy. Playing him made me a better person." Moore died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California.