Career
Hart began his screen career in 1937 with a bit part in Daughter of Shanghai. He continued in a variety of B pictures such as Prison Farm and King of Alcatraz before appearing in two of Cecil B. DeMille's films The Buccaneer (1938) and North West Mounted Police (1940).
His acting career was interrupted when he was drafted into the US Army in 1941. He rose to the rank of first sergeant in the Coast Artillery, eventually serving in the Philippines. Following military service, he worked frequently for Sam Katzman and was given the lead in the Jack Armstrong (1947)film serial. Hart did stunt work and acted in numerous Westerns and was eventually offered the opportunity to replace Clayton Moore on The Lone Ranger television series. Based on the assumption that the masked character, rather than the actor, was the true star of The Lone Ranger, the program's producers fired Moore (presumably over salary differences) and replaced him with Hart, who was of a similar build and had a comparable background in westerns. However, the public never truly accepted Hart as the Lone Ranger, and by 1954 the producers returned Moore to the role. (According to Clayton Moore's autobiography, I Was That Masked Man, Moore never knew why he was replaced with John Hart. He also stated that he had not sought a pay increase to continue portraying the Lone Ranger.)
Hart continued to act in films for more than two decades. He appeared in films of several genres, almost always in supporting roles. In 1955, he starred in The Adventures of Captain Africa, which was originally intended to be a new movie about famous comic book hero The Phantom. However, licensing issues made Columbia re-film the entire serial and re-christen the hero "Captain Africa". Hart also had numerous supporting roles in the Highway Patrol TV series.
In 1957, Hart portrayed Nat "Hawkeye" Cutler in the syndicated western series Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, set in New York State in the 1750s. The one-season program was based loosely on the novels of James Fenimore Cooper. It was filmed in Canada and featured some Indians in a favorable image. Interviewed by Tom Weaver in "Western Clippings" magazine (May–June 2000), Hart revealed that he met actress Beryl Braithwaite when she played a role in an episode of the series; they married just days later, with "Hawkeye" co-star Lon Chaney, Jr., the best man at the wedding.
In The Phynx, released in 1970, Hart played the Lone Ranger alongside Jay Silverheels as Tonto, spoofing their characters.
His last theatrical film appearance was in 1981's The Legend of the Lone Ranger in which he appeared as a newspaper editor, apparently as a tribute to his time as the Ranger years earlier. He appeared in the television series Happy Days as the Lone Ranger in the episode "Hi Yo, Fonzie Away" (February 9, 1982). In this episode Fonzie, played by Henry Winkler gets to meet his childhood hero, the Lone Ranger, for his birthday. Hart's other major late appearance was in a The Greatest American Hero episode, My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, where Hart gives the title character an inspiring speech about heroism.
On September 20, 2009, Hart died at his home in Playas de Rosarito, Baja California at the age of 91, survived by his wife Beryl and a daughter. His ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)