Frank Silvera

Silvera was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of a mixed-race Jamaican mother, Gertrude Bell and Portuguese Jewish father, Alfred Silvera.{{cite book|last=Rodriguez|first=Clara |title=Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533513-2|page=160}}{{cite book|last1=Berry|first1=Torriano|last2=Berry|first2=Venise T.|title=Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema|volume=12|year=2007|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-5545-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000berr/page/310 310]|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000berr/page/310}} His family emigrated to the United States when he was six years old, settling in Boston.{{cite book|title=Films and Filming|volume=25|year=1978|publisher=Hansom Books|page=46}} Silvera became interested in acting and began performing in amateur theatrical groups and at church.

He graduated from English High School of Boston and then studied at Boston University, followed by the Northeastern Law School.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fKljAAAAIBAJ&pg=1263,20963561&dq=frank+silvera&hl=en|title=Silvera Gets Role of Joe in "Ann Lucasta"|date=December 22, 1945|work=The Afro American|access-date=January 8, 2013}}

Silvera left Northeastern University Law School in 1934, when he was cast in Paul Green's production of Roll Sweet Chariot. He next joined the New England Repertory Theatre where he appeared in productions of MacBeth, Othello and The Emperor Jones. He also worked at Federal Theatre and with the New Hampshire Repertory Theatre. In 1940, Silvera made his Broadway debut in a small role in Big White Fog. His career was interrupted in 1942, when he enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II. He was assigned to Camp Robert Smalls, where he and Owen Dodson were in charge of entertainment. Silvera directed and acted in radio programs and appeared in USO shows. Honorably discharged at the war's end in 1945, he joined the cast of Anna Lucasta and became a member of the Actors Studio.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xMYlAAAAIBAJ&pg=3608,4941882&dq=frank+silvera+lawyer&hl=en|title=Silvera Has Top Role in 'Viva Zapata!|date=February 26, 1952|work=Baltimore Afro-American|page=15|access-date=January 8, 2013}}

In 1952, Silvera made his film debut in the western, The Cimarron Kid. Because of his strongly Latin appearance, he was cast in a variety of ethnic roles in films and television. He was cast as General Huerta in Viva Zapata! which starred Marlon Brando. Silvera also portrayed the role in the stage production, which opened at the Regent Theatre in New York City on February 28, 1952. He appeared in two films directed by Stanley Kubrick, Fear and Desire (1953) and Killer's Kiss (1955).

File:Silvera-Richman-Blaine in A Hatful of Rain.JPG and Vivian Blaine in A Hatful of Rain (1955)]]

In August 1955, he appeared on Broadway in a revival of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, which earned him favorable reviews. In November 1955, he portrayed John Pope Sr., the Italian father of Ben Gazzara and Anthony Franciosa's characters on Broadway in Michael V. Gazzo's A Hatful of Rain (a role portrayed by Lloyd Nolan on-screen), and again was praised by critics.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1-YmAAAAIBAJ&pg=3977,4154503&dq=frank+silvera+hatful+of+rain&hl=en|title=Frank Silvera starred on 'Studio One' program|date=August 3, 1957|work=The Afro American|page=7|access-date=January 8, 2013}}

Silvera made guest appearances in numerous television series, mainly dramas and westerns, including Studio One in Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bat Masterson, Thriller, Riverboat, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, The Untouchables, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason and Bonanza. In 1962 he portrayed Dr. Koslenko in The Twilight Zone episode "Person or Persons Unknown", opposite Richard Long. That year, he also played Minarii, a Polynesian man in the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty, again starring Marlon Brando. In 1963, he starred with Dean Martin in the movie Toys in the Attic. Silvera was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for playing Monsieur Duval in The Lady of the Camellias.

In 1964, Silvera and Vantile Whitfield founded the Theatre of Being, a Los Angeles-based theatre dedicated to providing black actors with non-stereotypical roles. One of their first projects was producing The Amen Corner by African-American writer James Baldwin. Silvera and Whitfield financed the play themselves and with donations from friends. It opened on March 4, 1964, and would gross $200,000 within the year, moving to Broadway in April 1965. Beah Richards won critical acclaim for her performance as the lead.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=idBTAAAAIBAJ&pg=740,1497104&dq=frank+silvera+the+theatre+of+being&hl=en|title='Civil Rights' Theater Has New Show on Broadway|date=May 9, 1965|work=St. Joseph News-Press|page=5D|access-date=January 8, 2013}}

Silvera continued his career in films and guest star roles on television. In 1965, he appeared as Gaspar, one of the Biblical Magi in the epic film The Greatest Story Ever Told, In 1966, he teamed with Marlon Brando for the third time in the Western The Appaloosa. The next year, he portrayed Nick Sorella in The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, followed by guest roles on Dundee and the Culhane and The Wild Wild West. He appeared as a Mexican bandit in the 1967 Martin Ritt-directed Western classic, Hombre, based on the Elmore Leonard novel. In 1969, Silvera had a supporting role as Goatherd in Che!, and as Lobero in the Zapata Western Guns of the Magnificent Seven.

Silvera was then hired as the first guest director at Fresno State College (FSC), with plans to stage a production of The Tea Concession by Henry J. Kemp-Blair, which reversed the racial positions of black and white in a drama about South Africa.{{cite news|title='Chapparral' Actor Dies in LA Area|url=http://www.ancestry.com|newspaper=The Fresno Bee|location=Fresno, California|date=June 11, 1970|page=6–D|access-date=August 16, 2013|quote=Frank Silvera, 56, the veteran character actor who spent a week at Fresno State College last fall in an aborted post as artist-in-residence, died earlier today in his home in Pasadena.}} However, he was forced to resign less than two weeks later, caught in the middle of administrative shakeups and the aborted hiring of Marvin X by the Black Studies department. "With this upheaval it seemed to blacks and browns that Silvera was part of the package, part of the hardline takeover (at FSC). There was such a sense of despair and betrayal...they took it out on me," Silvera said to David Hale, theater writer for The Fresno Bee. "It seemed to me they thought I was the agent to smooth things over while the establishment hatched up something else dirty."{{cite news|title=Frank Silvera ... What Might Have Been|first=Tom|last=Kirwan|newspaper=The Fresno Bee|location=Fresno, California|date=July 28, 1970|page=14–A|quote=Silvera was the veteran actor who spent a brief and unhappy interlude at Fresno State College last year as an artist-in-residence.}}

At the time of his death, Silvera had a recurring role in the NBC western series The High Chaparral as the Mexican squire, Don Sebastian Montoya. His final film, Valdez Is Coming, was released posthumously, in 1971.

Silvera married actress Anna Lillian Quarles in 1942. They met while appearing in a stage production of Stevedore. Quarles was the sister of historian and educator Benjamin Arthur Quarles. They had two children, Frank Jr. and Linda, before divorcing in 1963.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/12/archives/frank-silvera-actordirector-electrocuted-in-coast-mishap.html?_r=0|title=Frank Silvera, Actor-Director, Electrocuted in Coast Mishap|date=June 12, 1970|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 8, 2013}}

Silvera was killed on June 11, 1970, after accidentally electrocuting himself while repairing a garbage disposal unit in his kitchen sink.{{cite book|last=Ceilán|first=Cynthia |title=Thinning the Herd: Tales of the Weirdly Departed|year=2007|publisher=Globe Pequot|isbn=978-1-59921-219-7|page=91}} He was 55.

In 1973, the Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop Foundation, Inc. was created in honor of Silvera and his efforts to support black-American actors and playwrights.

The organization sponsors promising African-American playwrights. In 2005, the workshop was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/nyregion/06donate.html?_r=1&ex=1278302400&en=93a1beabd4ede5b8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss|title=City Groups Get Bloomberg Gift of $20 Million|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 25, 2011|first=Sam|last=Roberts|date=July 6, 2005}}

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• [http://www.fsww.org/ Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop Foundation, Inc.]
• {{Find a Grave|21473}}

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Category:1914 births

Category:1970 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:Accidental deaths by electrocution

Category:Accidental deaths in California

Category:American actors of Jamaican descent

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:American people of Portuguese-Jewish descent

Category:Jewish American male actors

Category:American theatre directors

Category:Boston University alumni

Category:Burials at Long Island National Cemetery

Category:English High School of Boston alumni

Category:Jamaican emigrants to the United States

Category:Male Western (genre) film actors

Category:Male actors from Boston

Category:Military personnel from Massachusetts

Category:Northeastern University School of Law alumni

Category:Male actors from Kingston, Jamaica

Category:United States Navy officers

Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II

Category:Federal Theatre Project people