John Hart, 91, the ‘other’ Lone Ranger on TV series

Those who say Clayton Moore are at least partially correct, but there was another actor who played the Masked Man on “The Lone Ranger’’ television series, temporarily replacing Moore in the title role for 52 episodes, beginning in 1952.

John Hart, 91, the handsome and athletic actor who also starred in the 1940s movie serial “Jack Armstrong: The All-American Boy’’ and the 1950s television series “Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans,’’ died Sept. 20 at his home in Rosarito Beach in Baja California, said his wife, Beryl.

“He had dementia in his last years,’’ she said last week, “but he was very happy living by the ocean. He used to surf this whole coast in the late ’30s and after the war.’’

A Los Angeles native who launched his Hollywood career with a few bit parts in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1938 film “The Buccaneer,’’ Mr. Hart played small roles in a string of films before being drafted into the Army in 1941.

After the war, he played the title role in the 1947 Columbia serial “Jack Armstrong: The All-American Boy,’’ which was based on the popular radio show.

Mr. Hart had already appeared in a couple of episodes of “The Lone Ranger’’ as a guest actor when Moore left the series, reportedly over a pay dispute.

“I don’t know how many other actors they looked at, but I got the part,’’ Mr. Hart said in an interview for the book “The Story of the Lone Ranger’’ by James Van Hise. “They didn’t pay me much, either. It was unbelievable. But being an out-of-work actor, to have a steady job for a while is great.’’

Mr. Hart said they shot each half-hour episode in two days.

When he began playing the role, he said in a 2001 interview with Tom Weaver for Starlog magazine, “I got a lot of bad advice about playing the part. I tried the bad advice for about one or two shows, and then I said, ‘The hell with that; I’ll do it my own way.’

“They wanted me to be like a stiff Army major, and it was all wrong. So I just forgot that and slipped into the part, and everybody loved it.’’

For many “Lone Ranger’’ fans, Moore owned the iconic role, and Mr. Hart was placed in an unenviable position when he took it over.

“Tough job, but somebody’s got to do it,’’ said Boyd Magers, editor and publisher of Western Clippings, a Western-film publication. “He walked right into it, and he played the Lone Ranger to the hilt. For those 52 episodes, he became the man behind the mask.’’

Mr. Hart was no stranger to horses, having worked as a cowboy during summers while growing up.

“He worked very hard with Silver, the horse, who had been spooked previously and was very large and very hard to handle,’’ Beryl Hart said.

“He said he could call Silver from one side of a corral and get him pounding toward him, this huge horse, and get him to stop on a dime right in front of him,’’ she said.

After Moore returned to “The Lone Ranger,’’ Mr. Hart went on to star in the 1955 serial “The Adventures of Captain Africa.’’

He also starred in “Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans,’’ a 1957 syndicated television series shot in Canada with Lon Chaney Jr. as Chingachgook.