Henry Silva, a charismatic performer with roles as villains in several movies including “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Manchurian Candidate,” passed away on Wednesday at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, according to his son Scott. He was 95.
In John Frankenheimer’s timeless thriller “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), Silva played Chunjin, the Korean houseboy for Laurence Harvey’s Raymond Shaw who doubles as a Communist agent and engages in an exciting, choreographed martial arts duel with Frank Sinatra’s Major Bennett Marco in Shaw’s New York apartment. This was one of Silva’s most iconic roles.
Silva starred alongside Sinatra in many other films, such as the 1960 Rat Pack classic “Ocean’s Eleven,” which also starred Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., and the 1962 Western “Sergeants 3.”
Dean Martin’s daughter Deana Martin said 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.”
His other acting credits include roles in “Sharky’s Machine” (1981), “Code of Silence” (1985), “Above the Law” (1988), “Dick Tracy” (1990), and “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” (1999). In 2001, Silva made a brief cameo in the remake of “Ocean’s Eleven.”
His visage looms on film, according to Knight-Ridder journalist Diane Haithman’s 1985 piece titled “Henry Silva: The Actor You Love to Hate.” “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).”
According to Silva, growing up in Spanish Harlem helped him prepare for the sorts of characters he would later play in movies. He told Haithman this. “ ‘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.’ “
The actor said to the interviewer about his career: ‘I think I haven’t disappeared (as a popular “heavy”) because 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 was raised in Spanish Harlem after being born in Brooklyn. According to the book “Hispanics in Hollywood, ” his parents were Italian and Puerto Rican. He dropped out of school at 13 and started taking acting courses, supporting himself by working as a dishwasher and then a server. In 1955, Silva applied to the Actors Studio and was selected as one of five pupils out of 2,500 candidates.
He made his big-screen debut in Elia Kazan’s 1952 film “Viva Zapata!” with Marlon Brando and his television debut on “Armstrong Circle Theatre” in 1950, both uncredited.
Silva married twice in the 1950s; his third union, to Ruth Earl, lasted from 1966 to 1987 before ending in divorce.
He is survived by Michael and Scott, his two children.