(23 September 1926 - 14 September 2022)
The American character actor Henry Silva, who has died in Los Angeles aged 95, had a fifty-year career from 1950 to 2001. He made over 130 appearances in films and on television and was seldom if ever out of work. He was never a great star as such but he made his presence known, generally as a villain, perhaps on account of his craggy and pinched-looking facial features. He graced many a famous movie even if he was not a leading player. At random, some of the best films he was in include A Hatful of Rain, The Law and Jake Wade, Ocean's 11, Sergeants 3, The Manchurian Candidate, Sharky’s Machine, Cannonball Run II, Dick Tracy and the 2001 remake of Ocean's 11, his last film (in which he had a cameo as a boxing spectator). In between some of these recognisable titles were a lot of good, bad and indifferent crime and action movies.
Henry Silva was born in Brooklyn in New York City, the son of Sicilian and Spanish parents, Jesus and Angelina. When his father left the family, Henry was brought up by his mother in Spanish Harlem. He began drama classes at the age of 13 while also working as a waiter and dishwasher. His first film was an uncredited role in Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata! (1952) with Marlon Brando. In 1955 he was chosen to enrol at the Actors’ Studio where he appeared as a drug pusher in a student production of Michael V. Gazzo’s A Hatful of Rain. It transferred to Broadway and Silva later joined the cast of Fred Zinnemann’s film of the play in 1957.
Around that time he was in Budd Boetticher’s The Tall T with Randolph Scott, John Sturges’ The Law and Jake Wade with Robert Taylor, Mel Ferrer’s Green Mansions with Audrey Hepburn, Lewis Milestone’s Ocean's 11 with the Rat Pack, Cinderfella with Jerry Lewis, John Sturges’ Sergeants 3 and John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate. In 1963 he had the title role in Johnny Cool, William Asher’s gangster flick. Then in 1966 Silva was offered a part in The Hills Run Red, an Italian spaghetti Western which boosted his popularity in Europe. He continued to make a lot of films and to appear on television in such series as The Untouchables, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Cimarron Strip. The High Chaparral, Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-0 and The Streets of San Francisco.
Henry Silva was married three times, first to Mary Ramus, then Cindy Conroy and finally Ruth Earl with whom he has two sons, Michael and Scott. He and Earl divorced in 1987.
MICHAEL DARVELL
