Ronald Arthur Silver (July 2, 1946 – March 15, 2009) was an American actor/activist, director, producer, and radio host. As an actor, he portrayed
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
,
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appoin ...
and
Angelo Dundee
Angelo is an Italian masculine given name and surname meaning "angel", or "messenger".
People People with the given name
*Angelo Accattino (born 1966), Italian prelate of the Catholic Church
*Angelo Acciaioli (bishop) (1298–1357), Italian Rom ...
. He was awarded a
Tony
Tony may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer
* Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...
in 1988 for Best Actor for ''
Speed-the-Plow
''Speed-the-Plow'' is a 1988 play by David Mamet that is a satirical dissection of the American movie business. As stated in ''The Producer's Perspective'', "this is a theme Mamet would revisit in his later films ''Wag the Dog'' (1997) and ''St ...
,'' a satirical dissection of the American movie business.
Early life
Silver was born on July 2, 1946, in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, the son of May (''née'' Zimelman), a substitute teacher, and Irving Roy Silver, a clothing sales executive.
Silver was raised Jewish on the
Lower East Side of Manhattan and attended
Stuyvesant High School.
Silver went on to graduate from the
State University of New York at Buffalo
The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...
, with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Chinese, and received a master's degree in
Chinese History from
St. John's University in New York and the
Chinese Culture University
The Chinese Culture University (CCU; ) is a private Taiwanese university located in Yangmingshan in Shilin District, Taipei, Taiwan. CCU was established in 1962 and is one of the largest universities in Taiwan with an enrollment of about 32,00 ...
in Taiwan. He also attended
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
's
Graduate School of International Affairs (SIPA) and studied acting at the
Herbert Berghof Studio
The HB Studio (Herbert Berghof Studio) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization offering professional training in the performing arts through classes, workshops, free lectures, theater productions, theater rentals, a theater artist residency progra ...
, and later at
The Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded ...
.
Career
Silver got his big acting break starring in ''El Grande de Coca-Cola'' in 1974. Producers Richard Flanzer and Roy Silver (no relation) opened it at the famed
Whisky a Go Go
The Whisky a Go Go (informally nicknamed "the Whisky") is a historic nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip, corner North Clark Street, opposite North San Vicente Boule ...
on the
Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. The production ran for more than a year. Silver and his co-star, actor
Jeff Goldblum
Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum (; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor and musician. He has starred in some of the highest-grossing films of his era, such as ''Jurassic Park'' (1993) and ''Independence Day'' (1996), as well as their sequels.
...
, were discovered by Hollywood film agents during this show's run.
In 1976, he made his film debut in ''
Tunnel Vision
Tunnel vision is the loss of peripheral vision with retention of central vision, resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like field of vision.
Causes
Tunnel vision can be caused by:
Eyeglass users
Eyeglass users experience tunnel vision t ...
'', and also played a placekicker in the football comedy film ''
Semi-Tough''. From 1976 to 1978, he had a recurring role as Gary Levy in the sitcom ''
Rhoda'', a spinoff from ''
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (also known simply as ''Mary Tyler Moore'') is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. Mo ...
''. Additional screen roles include a psychiatrist in the horror story ''
The Entity
''The Entity'' is a 1982 American supernatural horror film directed by Sidney J. Furie, and written by Frank De Felitta, who adapted his 1978 novel of the same name. The film stars Barbara Hershey as a single mother in Los Angeles who is rape ...
'' (1983), the devoted son of
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano; September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two ...
in ''
Garbo Talks
''Garbo Talks'' is a 1984 American comedy-drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Anne Bancroft, Ron Silver, and Carrie Fisher, with a cameo appearance by Betty Comden as Greta Garbo.
The film was written by Larry Grusin, and also sta ...
'' (1984), an incompetent detective in ''
Eat and Run'' (1986), the pistol-wielding psychopath stalking
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, children's author, and activist. She came to prominence with her portrayal of Lt. Barbara Duran on the ABC sitcom '' Operation Petticoat'' (1977–78). In 1978, she m ...
in 1989's ''
Blue Steel'', and the lead in
Paul Mazursky
Irwin Lawrence "Paul" Mazursky (April 25, 1930 – June 30, 2014) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Known for his dramatic comedies that often dealt with modern social issues, he was nominated for five Academy Awards: three t ...
's Oscar-nominated ''
Enemies: A Love Story'' (1989).
He starred as
Jerry Lewis's character's son in the multi-episode "Garment District Arc" of the television crime series ''
Wiseguy'' (1988).
He portrayed two well-known attorneys in films based on actual events, playing
defense attorney Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appoin ...
in the drama ''
Reversal of Fortune'' (1990), based on the trial of
Claus von Bülow
Claus von Bülow (born Claus Cecil Borberg; 11 August 1926 – 25 May 2019) was a Danish-born British lawyer, consultant and socialite. In 1982, he was convicted of both the attempted murder of his wife Sunny von Bülow (born Martha Sharp ...
and defense attorney
Robert Shapiro in the television film ''
American Tragedy'' (2000), the story of the
O. J. Simpson trial
O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet.
O may also refer to:
Letters
* Օ օ, (Unicode: U+0555, U+0585) a letter in the Armenian alphabet
* Ο ο, Omicron, (Greek), a letter in the Greek alphabet
* O (Cyrillic), a letter of the ...
.
From 1991 to 2000, Silver served as president of the
Actors' Equity Association
The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a boo ...
. He played a film producer in ''
Best Friends'' opposite
Burt Reynolds and
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, dancer, producer, and singer. She rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Go ...
(1982), an actor in ''
Lovesick'' (1983) and a film director in ''
Mr. Saturday Night
''Mr. Saturday Night'' is a 1992 American comedy-drama film that marked the directorial debut of its star, Billy Crystal.
It focuses on the rise and fall of Buddy Young Jr., a stand-up comedian. Crystal produced and co-wrote the screenplay with ...
'' (1992). Silver portrayed a corrupt, rogue senator in the 1994
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the ag ...
sci-fi thriller ''
Timecop
''Timecop'' is a 1994 American science fiction action film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden. Richardson also served as executive producer. The film is based on '' Timecop'', a story created by Richar ...
''.
On television in 1998, he starred opposite
Kirstie Alley for season two of her TV comedy series ''
Veronica's Closet
''Veronica's Closet'' is an American sitcom television series created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, that aired on NBC for three seasons, from September 25, 1997, to December 7, 2000. The show stars Kirstie Alley as Veronica "Ronnie" Chase, ...
''.
In other films based on true stories, Silver portrayed tennis player
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December ...
in the TV docudrama ''
When Billie Beat Bobby
''When Billie Beat Bobby'' is a 2001 American sports comedy-drama television film written and directed by Jane Anderson that details the historic 1973 " The Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs and what le ...
'' (2001), about Riggs' real-life exhibition tennis match against
Billie Jean King, which Riggs lost. He was also featured as
Muhammad Ali's boxing trainer and cornerman
Angelo Dundee
Angelo is an Italian masculine given name and surname meaning "angel", or "messenger".
People People with the given name
*Angelo Accattino (born 1966), Italian prelate of the Catholic Church
*Angelo Acciaioli (bishop) (1298–1357), Italian Rom ...
in
Michael Mann
Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ...
's 2001 biopic ''
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
''.
From 2001 to 2002 and again from 2005 to 2006, he had a recurring role as presidential campaign adviser
Bruno Gianelli on the NBC series ''
The West Wing
''The West Wing'' is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White Hous ...
''.
Silver provided the narration for the 2004 political documentary film ''
FahrenHYPE 9/11'' that was produced as a conservative political response to the award-winning and controversial
Michael Moore documentary film, ''
Fahrenheit 9/11''.
Silver also narrated a
MEMRI
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI; officially the "Middle East Media and Research Institute") is a nonprofit press monitoring and analysis organization co-founded by former Israeli military intelligence officer Yigal Carmon an ...
documentary film about the Arab and Iranian reactions to the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
called ''
The Arab and Iranian Reaction to 911: Five Years Later.''
Additionally, Silver narrated the audiobook versions of several
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...
novels, including ''
American Pastoral,'' ''
The Plot Against America
''The Plot Against America'' is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternative history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh. The novel follows the fortunes of the R ...
,'' and ''
Portnoy's Complaint
''Portnoy's Complaint'' is a 1969 American novel by Philip Roth. Its success turned Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation u ...
''.
One of his final film performances was as a judge in another true story, 2006's ''
Find Me Guilty'', directed by
Sidney Lumet and starring
Vin Diesel
Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for playing Dominic Toretto in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise.
Diesel began auditio ...
.
In February 2008, Silver began hosting ''The Ron Silver Show'' on
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.
Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially lau ...
, which focused on politics and public affairs. The show aired live at 9–11am ET, on Indie Talk, Sirius 110.
Personal life
Silver traveled to more than 30 countries and spoke fluent
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
and Spanish. He taught at the high school level and was a social worker for the
Department of Social Services.
In 1975 he married a social worker, later ''
Self
The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhoo ...
'' magazine editor, Lynne Miller; the marriage lasted until their divorce in 1997.
In 1989, he co-founded the
Creative Coalition, an entertainment industry political advocacy organization that champions
First Amendment rights
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the f ...
, public education, and support for the arts.
Politics
Silver was a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations. In 2000, he co-founded the organization
One Jerusalem to oppose the
Oslo Peace Agreement and to maintain "a united
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
as the undivided capital of Israel".
Silver, who had been a lifelong
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
, left the party and became an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
and a supporter of President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
, citing those attacks and Democratic policies regarding
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
as reasons. He spoke at the
2004 Republican National Convention, continued to support President Bush, and was appointed Chairman for the Millennium Committee by
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
In Silver's blog on the
PJ Media
PJ Media, originally known as Pajamas Media, is an American right-wing subscription-based commentary website. It was founded in 2004, with its majority owner being software entrepreneur, billionaire and angel investor Aubrey Chernick, founder o ...
website, he claimed that colleagues on the set of ''
The West Wing
''The West Wing'' is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White Hous ...
'' referred to him as "Ron, Ron, the
Neo-Con
Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and c ...
".
On October 7, 2005, Silver was nominated by President Bush to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the
United States Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an American federal institution tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide. It provides research, analysis, and training to individuals in diplomacy, mediation, and other pea ...
. On September 8, 2006, it was announced that Silver had joined an advisory committee to the
Lewis Libby
Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby (born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer and former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney known for his high-profile indictment.
From 2001 to 2005, Libby held the offices of Assistant to the Vice Presiden ...
Legal Defense Trust.
President George W. Bush appointed Silver to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the
State of Israel in May 2008.
In one of his last televised interviews, he told ''
Sky News'' that Senator
John McCain's choice of
Sarah Palin as his running mate in the
2008 Presidential election was a "brilliant political choice" but that a part of him wished to "see an African American become president in my lifetime". According to the obituary printed by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', his brother, Mitchell Silver, noted that "He told me that he did vote for
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
in the end".
[
]
Death
Silver, a long-time smoker, died on March 15, 2009, at the age of 62, of esophageal cancer, which had been diagnosed two years earlier. He is buried at Westchester Hills Cemetery
The Westchester Hills Cemetery is at 400 Saw Mill River Road in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York, approximately 20 miles north of New York City. It is a Jewish cemetery, and many well-known entertainers and performers are interr ...
in Hastings-on-Hudson
Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the town of Greenburgh in the state of New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of midtown Manh ...
, New York.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver, Ron
1946 births
2009 deaths
American bloggers
American male film actors
American male television actors
American political activists
American political writers
American male non-fiction writers
Burials at Westchester Hills Cemetery
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni
Deaths from esophageal cancer
Drama Desk Award winners
East Side Hebrew Institute alumni
Jewish American male actors
Male actors from New York City
New York (state) Democrats
New York (state) Independents
Sirius Satellite Radio
St. John's University (New York City) alumni
Stuyvesant High School alumni
Tony Award winners
University at Buffalo alumni
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male bloggers
People from the Lower East Side
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
Presidents of the Actors' Equity Association