Henry Silva

Henry Silva
Silva in Cry of a Prostitute (1974)
Born	(1926-09-23)September 23, 1926 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	September 14, 2022(2022-09-14) (aged 95) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Actors Studio
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1952–2001
Spouses	Mary Ramus ​ ​ (m. 1949; div. 1955)​ Cindy Conroy ​ ​ (m. 1959, divorced)​ Ruth Earl ​ ​ (m. 1966; div. 1987)​
Partner	Wendy Christenfeld (1990–2022; his death)
Children	2

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”^[1] looks and brooding screen presence that saw him often play criminals, gangsters, or other “tough guys” in crime and action films.^[2] He was also closely associated with the “Rat Pack”.^[3]

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.^[2]

During the 1980’s, Silva made notable appearances as villains in action films like Sharky's Machine (1981) with Burt Reynolds, the cult classic Megaforce (1982), Cannonball Run II (1984), Code of Silence (1985) with Chuck Norris, Above the Law (1988) with Steven Seagal, and Dick Tracy (1990). He was also the voice of supervillain Bane in the DC Animated Universe. One of his final film roles, before his retirement, was as a mob boss in Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999).