Henry Silva Obituary

Henry Silva was an American actor known as a prolific character actor and a regular staple of international genre cinema, usually playing criminals or gangsters.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York City, of Sicilian and Spanish descent. Henry grew up in Harlem and quit school when he was 13 years old to attend drama classes, supporting himself as a dishwasher and waiter at a Manhattan hotel.

Silver was one of the eleven casino robbers in the 1960 Rat Pack caper film, Ocean’s 11, starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Peter Lawford.

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

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

Silva died on September 14, 2022, nine days before his 96th birthday, at the Motion Pictures & Television Fund home in Los Angeles.