Who’s That Masked Man? Hi-Yo-It’s Clayton Moore!

The Lone Ranger is taking off his dark glasses and putting on his mask once again.

Actor Clayton Moore, who played the Western hero in 208 television episodes, said today that he can once again portray the masked man fighting for law and order. “Fair play has prevailed and the Lone Ranger believes in fair play,” he said.

In 1979, the Wrather Corp., which owns the rights to the Lone Ranger character, obtained a restraining order preventing Moore, 69, from appearing at public functions as the masked rider.

The corporation was introducing a new and younger Lone Ranger, Klinton Spilsbury, in a new film, “The Legend of the Lone Ranger.”

Moore had to make do by wearing a pair of green-tinted sunglasses with his cowboy outfit.

He said he learned today that the Wrather Corp. had lifted its mask ban.

“The reason we did not want Moore to wear the mask has disappeared,” Wrather Corp. spokesman Monty Livingston said, referring to the film. “The Legend of the Lone Ranger,” released in 1981, was not a big box office success.

“Playing the Lone Ranger has made me a better man,” Moore said. “I was hurt when I could no longer wear the mask but playing the Lone Ranger made me more considerate of my fellow man.”