Henry Silva (born September 15 1928) is an American actor who has played a wide variety of movie roles. Silva was born in Brooklyn, New York of Sicilian and Spanish descent. He grew up in Harlem and quit school when he was 13 years old to attend drama classes, supporting himself as a dishwasher and waiter in a Manhattan hotel. By 1955, Silva felt ready to audition for the Actors Studio. He was one of five students chosen out of more than 2,500 applicants. When the Studio staged Michael V. Gazzo's play, A Hatful of Rain as a classroom project, it proved so successful that it was presented in Broadway, with students Ben Gazzara, Shelley Winters, Harry Guardino, Tony Franciosa, and Silva in key roles. Silva also appeared in the play's film version. In Hollywood, he played a succession of villains in films including The Tall T, The Bravados, Green Mansions, Ocean's Eleven, Johnny Cool, and the original The Manchurian Candidate (aside from Angela Lansbury and Leslie Parrish, Silva is one of the film's few surviving featured actors). He also had 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 also voiced Bane in The New Batman Adventues. He also sometimes played heavies on TV. For example he played a hit man in "Better Bargain" on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Other TV roles included an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery. 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, which made him a hot box office commodity in Spain, Italy, Germany, and France. Returning to the United States, he co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Contract on Cherry Street, then signed on as Buck Rogers' evil adversary, as well as the villainous Kurt Zagon in Above the Law. In 1999, he appeared as the sorrowful and doomed mob boss Ray Vargo in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Silva returned permanently to Los Angeles, but forays back to Europe's film production centers. He speaks Italian and Spanish fluently. (more)
Type: person
Genres: entertainment, actor, tv shows, movies
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Ocean's Eleven (1960 film):
Ocean's Eleven is a 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. Other stars included Angie Dickinson, Cesar Romero, Richard Conte, Akim Tamiro
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The Bravados:
The Bravados is a 1958 western film directed by Henry King and starring Gregory Peck, Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd, Henry Silva, Albert Salmi, Kathleen Gallant, Barry Coe, George Voskovec, Lee Van Cleef and Gene Evans.
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Bane (comics):
Bane is a fictional character, a DC Comics' Batman villain created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan. He possesses superhuman strength caused by his use of the drug Venom. The character first appears in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (Janua
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A Hatful of Rain:
A Hatful of Rain is a 1957 dramatic film. It stars Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan and Henry Silva. The movie was adapted by Michael V. Gazzo, Alfred Hayes and Carl Foreman from the play by Gazzo. It was directed by Fred Z
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Green Mansions (film):
Green Mansions is a 1959 American romantic adventure film directed by Mel Ferrer. Based upon the 1904 novel Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson, the film starred Audrey Hepburn (who at the time was married to Ferrer) as Rima, a jungle girl who fal
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Michael V. Gazzo:
Michael Vincente Gazzo (April 5, 1923 - February 14, 1995) was a noted Broadway playwright who later in life became a prominent American film and television actor. He was a member of the Actors Studio, (and would later go on to train such actors as D
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The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film):
The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is a Cold War political thriller film adapted by George Axelrod from the 1959 thriller novel, by Richard Condon. It was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, and Ja
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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series):
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series was developed by Glen A. Larson and ran for two seasons, from 1979 - 1981. The feature-length pilot episode for the s
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Above the Law (film):
Above the Law (also known as Nico: Above The Law, or simply Nico ) is a 1988 action film directed by Andrew Davis, probably best-known for being the film debut of Steven Seagal. This came about after a successful screen test, financed by Michael Ovit
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Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai:
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a 1999 offbeat samurai action film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. The film was shot mostly in Jersey City, NJ, but the movie never mentions where the story is set. License plates reveal it is in "The Indust
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Cinderfella:
Cinderfella is a comedy version of the classic Cinderella story, with several of the roles reversed. It was released December 16, 1960 by Paramount Pictures and stars Jerry Lewis as Fella.
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The Tall T:
The Tall T is a 1957 western film directed by Budd Boetticher. The movie was adapted by Burt Kennedy from Elmore Leonard's short story "The Captives." In 2000, The Tall T was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by th
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Contract on Cherry Street:
Contract on Cherry Street, a novel by Phillip Rosenberg about a New York police detective who turns vigilante against the mob when one of his partners is gunned down, was adapted for television in 1977 by Frank Sinatra's production company Artanis. D
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