Henry Silva

Henry Silva (September 23, 1926 – September 14, 2022) was an American actor, with a film and television career which spanned fifty years. A prolific character actor in over 140 productions, he was known for his "dark, sepulchral" looks and brooding screen presence that saw him often play criminals, gangsters, or other "tough guys" in crime and action films. He was also closely associated with the "Rat Pack".

After a string of minor and supporting parts, Silva had his breakthrough with featured roles in the Rat Pack features Ocean's 11 (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Sergeants 3 (also 1962), followed by the leading role in Johnny Cool (1963). In the following decade, he worked extensively in European cinema, becoming a star of the Italian poliziotteschi genre. He was the son of Jesus Silva and Angelina Martinez, and was of Sicilian and Spanish descent. His father, a sailor from Italy, abandoned the family when he was young, and he grew up in Spanish Harlem with his mother.

By 1955, Silva felt ready to audition for the Actors Studio. He was accepted. When the Studio staged Michael V. Gazzo's play A Hatful of Rain as a classroom project (which itself grew out of an earlier improvisation by Silva, Paul Richards, and Tony Franciosa, based on a scene written by Gazzo, titled "Pot"), it proved so successful that it was presented on Broadway, with students Ben Gazzara, Shelley Winters, Harry Guardino, along with Franciosa, Richards, and Silva, in key roles. Silva also appeared in the play's film version.

Early film roles and typecasting

Silva's career focused on the portrayal of "ethnic" villains, including East Asians, Native Americans, Mexicans, and Italians.

His Hollywood debut was an uncredited appearance in Elia Kazan's 1952 Viva Zapata!. Silva then went on to play a succession of villains in films including The Tall T (1957) with Randolph Scott,

Silva's early career breakthrough was through his association with the Rat Pack, when he was cast as one of eleven casino robbers in the 1960 heist film Ocean's 11, starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford. Silva landed the role after Sinatra spotted him in a convertible at a stop light on Doheny Drive and asked him to come to the studio the next day.

He also played the Korean communist agent Chunjin in the original The Manchurian Candidate (1962), again opposite Sinatra, and portrayed a Native American in Sinatra's and Martin's Rat Pack Western Sergeants 3 that same year.

Silva gradually became typecast playing mobsters, robbers, and other criminals. In 1956, he appeared as a hitman in the episode "Better Bargain" on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. And in 1963, he starred as a mobster in the episode "An Out for Oscar" on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. However, he did play a comic role as one of the stepbrothers in the 1960 Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella, a parody of Cinderella with Lewis in the title role.

He appeared in many television series in both guest starring and recurring roles. Other appearances include featured roles on The Outer Limits plus roles on episodes of The Untouchables, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea He also appeared in The Streets of San Francisco, and many more shows.

In 1965, an Italian film producer made Silva an offer to star as a hero for a change and he moved his family overseas. Silva's turning-point picture was a Spaghetti Western, The Hills Run Red (1966), which made him a hot box-office commodity in Spain, Italy, Germany, and France. Between 1966 and 1977 he starred or co-starred in at least 25 movies, the majority of which were Italian Poliziotteschi films, where he normally played the villain or hitman, or the dark hero, or a combination of the two. These include Manhunt (1972), Il Boss (1973), and Almost Human (1974).

He also appeared against type as the Japanese detective Mr. Moto in the 1965 murder mystery The Return of Mr. Moto, and as an Apache who assists rape victim Michele Carey in the 1970 revenge western Five Savage Men.

Returning to the United States in the mid-1970s, he co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Contract on Cherry Street (1977) and Charles Bronson in Love and Bullets (1979). He then signed on as the evil adversary Killer Kane in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979).

Silva also starred as himself in a spoof of In Search of ...-type shows in the comedy Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) for a segment titled Henry Silva's "Bullshit, or Not!", and played a spectator at a boxing match in the 2001 version of Ocean's Eleven.

In 2012 he contributed to Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films that ruled the 70s, a feature-length documentary directed by Mike Malloy.

Personal life Silva was married three times. His second was on 16 March 1959 to Cindy Conroy.

Selected filmography Films

1952 Viva Zapata! as Hernandez, a peasant who challenges "president" Zapata (uncredited) 1956 The Better Bargain 1957 The Tall T as "Chink" 1959 Green Mansions as Kua-Ko 1969 Probabilità zero as Duke 1971 Man and Boy as Caine 1974 White Fang to the Rescue as Mr. Nelson 1975 Manhunt in the City as David Vannucchi 1980 Alligator as Colonel Brock 1981 Sharky's Machine as Carlos "Billy Score" Scorelli 1982 Megaforce as Duke Guerera 1989 Cyborg – Il guerriero d'acciaio as "Hammer" 1990 Dick Tracy as "Influence" 1991 Fists of Steel as Shogi 1998 The New Batman Adventures as Bane (1 episode) 1998 Superman: The Animated Series as Bane (1 episode)

Explanatory notes