Henry
Silva, Distinctive Actor in ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ ‘Manchurian Candidate,’ Dies at
94
Variety
By
Carmel Dagan
September
16, 2022
Henry
Silva, an actor with a striking look who often played villains and had credits
in hundreds of films including “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Manchurian Candidate,”
died of natural causes Wednesday at the Motion Picture Picture and Television
Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., his son Scott confirmed.
He was 94.
One
of Silva’s most memorable roles came in John Frankenheimer’s classic thriller
“The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), in which he played Chunjin, the Korean
houseboy for Laurence Harvey’s Raymond Shaw — and an agent for the Communists —
who engages in a thrilling, well-choreographed martial arts battle with Frank
Sinatra’s Major Bennett Marco in Shaw’s New York apartment.
Silva
appeared in a number of other movies with Sinatra, including the original, Rat
Pack-populated “Ocean’s Eleven” (1960) with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.,
where he was one of the 11 thieves, and 1962 Western “Sergeants 3.”
His
death was first reported by Dean Martin’s daughter Deana Martin, who wrote on
Twitter, “Our hearts are broken at the loss of our dear friend Henry Silva, one
of the nicest, kindest and most talented men I’ve had the pleasure of calling
my friend. He was the last surviving star of the original Oceans 11 Movie. We
love you Henry, you will be missed.”
In
later years, he appeared in Burt Reynolds vehicle “Sharky’s Machine” (1981),
the Chuck Norris movie “Code of Silence” (1985), Steven Seagal movie “Above the
Law” (1988), Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy” (1990) and Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog:
The Way of the Samurai” (1999); Silva’s final screen appearance was a cameo in
the “Ocean’s Eleven” remake in 2001.
A
1985 article by Knight-Ridder journalist Diane Haithman headlined “Henry Silva:
The Actor You Love to Hate” began this way: “His face looms on screen. A face
with sharp, high cheekbones and a blunt, tiny nose, a face that looks like it
was cut out of steel and always is behind a gun. And eyes that see only the
next victim. Cold eyes. The eyes of a psychopath. He doesn’t have to say a
thing before you know you hate him. … Silva has made a lifelong career with
that face (which, by the way, looks fatherly off-camera).”
Silva
told Haithman that growing up in Spanish Harlem helped prepare him for the
kinds of roles he would later play in movies. “ ‘I saw a lot of things in
Harlem,’ he recalled in an accent rich with his New York origins. ‘It was the
kind of place where if you lived on one block and you wanted to go a few blocks
away, you had to take a couple of guys with you, or else you would get your ass
kicked.’ “
Speaking
of his career, the actor told the journalist,” ‘I think the reason that I
haven’t disappeared (as a popular “heavy”) is that the heavies I play are all
leaders. I never play a wishy-washy anything. They’re interesting roles,
because when you leave the theater, you remember these kinds of guys.’”
Silva
first made an impression as the henchman to Richard Boone’s villain in Budd
Boetticher’s 1957 Western “The Tall T,” starring Randolph Scott. He also
appeared in Westerns including “The Law and Jake Wade” (he played Rennie, one
of the Confederate ruffians led by Richard Widmark) and “The Bravados.”
In
Fred Zinnemann’s “A Hatful of Rain” (1957), starring Don Murray and Eva Marie
Saint, he played Mother, the supplier to Murray’s piteous morphine addict;
Silva had created the role of Mother in 1955-56 in the original Broadway
production of the play upon which the movie was based in which Ben Gazzara and
Shelley Winters starred.
In
Audrey Hepburn-Anthony Perkins vehicle “Greens Mansions” (1959), he played the
evil son of the chief of a primitive tribe in the Venezuelan jungle; he also
played a Native American in “Five Savage Men” (1970) and “Sergeants 3” (1962).
Silva
starred as the title character in the 1963 crime drama “Johnny Cool,” in which
his character assassinates Mafia bosses in order to gain control of an empire
of his own. He also portrayed the title character, a Japanese secret agent
earlier played by Peter Lorre, in 1965’s “The Return of Mr. Moto.”
According
to an article on the website Cool Ass Cinema, Silva’s “talents as a leading man
weren’t fully appreciated till he went to Europe, where Italian filmmakers put
his wild eyed, intense face to good use after a fiery, scene-stealing
performance in Carlo Lizzani’s exciting ‘The Hills Run Red’ (1966). “Silva
really found his calling in European action thrillers as evidenced in Emilio
Miraglia’s taut political thriller ‘Assassination’ (1967),” where he is reborn
with a new identity, Chandler, trained as a political assassin and used to
defeat an international crime syndicate. The actor starred the next year for
Miraglia in “The Falling Man,” in which he played a cop framed for killing a
police informer.
Silva
got even busier in the 1970s, playing tough customers on both sides of the law
in movies made in Europe. He had prominent roles, said Cool Ass Cinema, “in two
of Fernando Di Leo’s most accomplished works — ‘Manhunt’ (1972) and ‘The Boss’
(1973) — the second and third of his Mafia trilogy that began with the superb
genre classic ‘Milan Caliber 9’ (1972).” In ‘Manhunt,’ Silva and Woody Strode
played American assassins out to silence a pimp who’s wrongfully blamed for the
disappearance of a shipment of heroin; ‘The Boss’ saw one of Silva’s best
performances, playing a hitman working for a Mafioso. “His role here,” said
Cool Ass Cinema, “defined the signature Silva persona as an infallible, near
indestructible presence bearing a cool and calculating demeanor.”
Other
European credits during the ’70s include Andrea Bianchi’s brutal crime drama
“Cry of a Prostitute,” Umberto Lenzi’s “Almost Human,” “Manhunt in the City”
and “Free Hand for a Tough Cop,” “Weapons of Death” and finally 1979’s
“Crimebusters.” “Manhunt in the City” showed a somewhat more vulnerable side of
Silva as an ordinary man driven to seek vengeance when the law fails to punish
the killers of his daughter.
In
the 1980s he sometimes showed a humorous side as he appeared in roles parodying
his earlier work, such as in “Cannonball Run 2.”
Silva
was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Spanish Harlem. According to the book
“Hispanics in Hollywood,” his parents were Italian and Puerto Rican. He quit
school when he 13 and began to take drama classes while supporting himself as a
dishwasher and eventually a waiter. Silva auditioned for the Actors Studio in
1955; he was one of five students accepted from a field of 2,500 applicants.
He’d
made his television debut on “Armstrong Circle Theatre” in 1950 and his
big-screen debut, uncredited, in Elia Kazan’s 1952 film “Viva Zapata!” starring
Marlon Brando.
Silva
was twice married in the 1950s; his third marriage, to Ruth Earl, lasted from
1966 until their divorce in 1987.
He
is survived by two sons, Michael and Scott. Scott Silva asked that fans
remember his father by commenting on his social accounts: Instagram:
henrysilvaofficial; Twitter: @MrHenrySilva and Henry Silva official on
Facebook.
SILVA,
Henry
Born:
9/15/1928,
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
Died:
9/14/2022,
Woodland Hills, California, U.S.A.
Henry
Silva’s westerns – actor:
Viva
Zapata – 1952 (Hernandez)
The
Tall T – 1956 (Chink)
The
Bravados – 1958 (Leandro Lujan)
The
Law and Jake Wade – 1958 (Rennie)
Ride
a Crooked Trail – 1958 (Sam Teeler)
The
Jayhawkers – 1959 (Lordan)
Hotel
de Paree (TV) – 1960 (Start Thorne)
Stagecoach
West (TV) – 1961 (Mel Harney)
Sergeants
3 - 1962 (Mountain Hawk)
Wagon
Train (TV) – 1962, 1963 (John Turnbull, Ram Singh, Doc Holliday)
Stoney
Burke (TV) – 1963 (Matt Elder)
The
Reward – 1965 (Joaquin)
Daniel
Boone (TV) – 1965 (Zapotec)
The
Hills Run Red – 1966 (Garcia Mendez)
The
Plainsman – 1966 (Crazy Knife)
Cimarron
Strip (TV) – 1967 (Coffin)
The
High Chaparral (TV) – 1967 (Santos Castaneda)
Laredo
(TV) – 1967 (General Shen Ti)
The
Animals – 1970 (Chatto)
Man
and Boy – 1971 (Caine)
Bearcats!
(TV) - 1971 (Zavala)
Black
Noon – (TV) 1971 (Moon)
White
Fang to the Rescue – 1974 (Mr. Nelson)
Lust
in the Dust – 1984 (Bernardo)
Man
Hunt – 1984 (Collins)
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