Last night, I was flipping through the channels and came across The Legend of the Lone Ranger, the 1981 reboot of the classic character. At the time, it seemed to have a lot going for it. Jason Robards starred as President Ulysses S. Grant. Christopher Lloyd played the bad guy. Matt Clark was the corrupt sheriff. Merle Haggard sang the theme song and narrated the film. Richard Farnsworth showed up as Wild Bill Hickok. Heck, the entire thing was based on a famous character that many people loved.
However, there was a problem. John Reid and his alter ego the Lone Ranger was played by an unknown actor named Klinton Spilsbury, and it did not work out well.
Through the years, I have heard the story that his lines were later dubbed by James Keach. I have also heard that this was Spilsbury’s first and last starring role in a movie. There are not many times that one role destroys an entire career.
The Legend of the Lone Ranger has gone down as one of the biggest disasters in movie history, and a lot of that has been placed at the feet of Spilsbury. However, I have never considered it to be that bad. Yes, it is corny, and the plot is a little strange. But, that can be said about a lot of movies. Could it have been better? No doubt. I am just not sure that the Man in the Mask should have taken all of the blame.
Despite all of that, this post is not about the movie. It is about Klinton Spilsbury. What happens to someone when their entire career is derailed by one movie? As it turns out, nobody really knows. Through Google, I found out that he went to Europe to be a model and later tried to restart his acting career. When Johnny Depp made another Lone Ranger disaster in 2013, media members found Spilsbury, but he refused to talk to them. I cannot blame him for that.
Klinton Spilsbury was a first-time actor working for a first-time director. On top of that, the studio sued Clayton Moore, the most famous Lone Ranger, for continuing to appear as the character. In short, this movie had a ton of problems.
Klinton Spilsbury disappeared from the public eye. Wherever he is, I wonder if he has put the Lone Ranger behind him. Who is that Masked Man? Well, the answer is complicated.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 