Ron Silver
{{short description|American actor and activist (1946–2009)}}
{{other people}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2019}}
{{use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ron Silver
| image = Ron Silver.jpg
| caption = Ron Silver in the television series Skin (2003)
| birth_name = Ronald Arthur Silver
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1946|7|2}}
| birth_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|3|15|1946|7|2}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| resting_place = Westchester Hills Cemetery
| occupation = {{flatlist|
- Actor
- director
- producer
- political activist}}
| yearsactive = 1974–2009
| party = Independent (after 2001)
| otherparty = Democratic (before 2001)
| spouse = {{marriage|Lynne Miller|1975|1997|end=divorced}}
| children = 2
| education = University at Buffalo (BA)
St. John's University
| module2 = {{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office = 12th President of the Actors' Equity Association
| term_start = 1991
| term_end = 2000
| predecessor = Colleen Dewhurst
| successor = Patrick Quinn
}}
}}
Ronald Arthur Silver (July 2, 1946 – March 15, 2009) was an American actor, director, producer, radio host, and activist. As an actor, he portrayed Henry Kissinger, Alan Dershowitz and Angelo Dundee. He was awarded a Tony in 1988 for Best Actor for Speed-the-Plow, a satirical dissection of the American movie business, and was nominated for an Emmy for his recurring role as political strategist Bruno Gianelli in The West Wing.{{cite web| url=https://www.tonyawards.com/winners/year/1988/category/any/show/any/| title=Winners: 1988| website=Tony Awards}}{{cite web |title=Actor Ron Silver dies in NYC at age 62 of cancer |url=https://www.delcotimes.com/2009/03/16/actor-ron-silver-dies-in-nyc-at-age-62-of-cancer/ |website=The Delco Times |date=March 16, 2009 |publisher=Associated Press |access-date=2 February 2024}}
Early life
Silver was born on July 2, 1946, in Manhattan, the son of May (née Zimelman), a substitute teacher, and Irving Roy Silver, a clothing sales executive.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/movies/16silver.html| newspaper=The New York Times| title=Ron Silver, 62, Persuasive Actor and Activist, Dies| first=Bruce| last=Weber| date=March 16, 2009| access-date=March 27, 2010}}{{cite web| url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/62/Ron-Silver.html| title=Ron Silver Biography (1946-)| website=Film Reference.com| access-date=2007-11-01}} Silver was raised Jewish on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and attended Stuyvesant High School.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813233731/http://www.greatertalent.com/speakers/speakers.php?speakerid=563 |archive-date=August 13, 2006 |url=http://www.greatertalent.com/speakers/speakers.php?speakerid=563 |title=Ron Silver |website=Greater Talent Network |access-date=2007-11-01}}
Silver went on to graduate from the State University of New York at Buffalo,{{cite news| url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-ron-silver16-2009mar16-story.html| title=Ron Silver dies at 62; Tony-winning actor and political activist| last=McLellan| first=Dennis| date=2009-03-16| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| access-date=2018-12-03}} 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 in Taiwan. He also attended Columbia University's Graduate School of International Affairs (SIPA) and studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio,{{cite news| url=https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/actor-ron-silver-dies-in-nyc-at-age-62-of-cancer-1.1210395| title=Ron Silver dies in NYC at age 62 of cancer| date=2009-03-15| newspaper=Newsday| location=Melville, NY| access-date=2018-12-03| agency=Associated Press}} and later at The Actors Studio.{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=op5cAAAAIBAJ&pg=5418,1841012&dq=ron-silver+actors-studio&hl=en| newspaper=The Gettysburg Times| title='Baker's Dozen' Star Ron Silver Likes Exotica| first=Jerry| last=Buck| date=March 20, 1982| access-date=December 8, 2012}}{{cite book| first=David| last=Garfield| title=A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio| url=https://archive.org/details/playersplacestor00garf| url-access=registration| year=1980| publisher=MacMillan| location=New York| isbn=978-0-0254-2650-4| page=[https://archive.org/details/playersplacestor00garf/page/280 280]| chapter=Appendix: Life Members of The Actors Studio as of January 1980}} As a student he was exempt from the Vietnam War draft.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1990/11/25/the-real-ron-silver/3df88eaf-9f1d-47a9-a1b9-8ae6449b0d76/ The real Don Silver] The Washington Post November 25, 1990. (subscription required)
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 on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. The production ran for more than a year. Silver and his co-star, actor Jeff Goldblum, were discovered by Hollywood film agents during this show's run.
In 1976, he made his film debut in Tunnel Vision, 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. Additional screen roles include psychiatrists in the Chuck Norris film Silent Rage and in the horror story The Entity (1983), the devoted son of Anne Bancroft in Garbo Talks (1984), an incompetent detective in Eat and Run (1986), the pistol-wielding psychopath stalking Jamie Lee Curtis in 1989's Blue Steel, and the lead in Paul Mazursky'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 in the drama Reversal of Fortune (1990), based on the trial of Claus von Bülow and defense attorney Robert Shapiro in the television film American Tragedy (2000), the story of the O. J. Simpson trial.
From 1991 to 2000, Silver served as president of the Actors' Equity Association. He played a film producer in Best Friends opposite Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn (1982), an actor in Lovesick (1983) and a film director in Mr. Saturday Night (1992). Silver portrayed a corrupt, rogue senator in the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme sci-fi thriller Timecop.
On television in 1998, he starred opposite Kirstie Alley in season two of her TV comedy series Veronica's Closet.
In other films based on true stories, Silver portrayed tennis player Bobby Riggs in the TV docudrama When Billie Beat Bobby (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 in Michael Mann's 2001 biopic Ali.
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.
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 documentary film about the Arab and Iranian reactions to the September 11 attacks called The Arab and Iranian Reaction to 911: Five Years Later.{{cite web| url=http://www.memrifilms.org/| title=The Arab and Iranian Reaction to 9/11 —Five Years Later— Memrifilms Documentary| website=Memri Films| access-date=2016-03-12}}
Additionally, Silver narrated the audiobook versions of several Philip Roth novels, including American Pastoral, The Plot Against America, and Portnoy's Complaint.
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.{{citation| title=Find Me Guilty (2006)| url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419749/fullcredits| website=IMDb| access-date=2019-01-09}}
In February 2008, Silver began hosting The Ron Silver Show on Sirius Satellite Radio, which focused on politics and public affairs.
Personal life
Silver traveled to more than 30 countries and spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. He taught at the high school level and was a social worker for the Department of Social Services.
In 1975 he married Lynne Miller, a social worker who later became a Self magazine editor. The couple had two children; they divorced in 1997.
{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=20020117&id=d_kwAAAAIBAJ&pg=2883,1315407| title=Lawyer sues 'West Wing' actor| date=2002-01-17| newspaper=Kentucky New Era| location=Hopkinsville| access-date=2018-12-03| page=B12| agency=Associated Press}}
In 1989, he co-founded the Creative Coalition, an entertainment industry political advocacy organization that champions First Amendment rights, 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 as the undivided capital of Israel".{{cite web| url=https://onej.org/our-mission/| title=Our Mission| website=One Jerusalem| language=en-US| access-date=2018-12-03}}
Silver, who had been a lifelong Democrat, left the party and became an independent and a supporter of President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, citing those attacks and Democratic policies regarding terrorism 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 a blog post on the PJ Media website, Silver recounted that colleagues on the set of The West Wing had teasingly referred to him as "Ron, Ron, the Neo-Con".{{cite news| url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-1m16silver212412-ron-silver-2009mar16-story.html| title=Ron Silver; longtime stage, TV, film actor, political activist; 62| last=Germain| first=David| date=2009-03-16| work=The San Diego Union-Tribune| access-date=2018-12-03| language=en-US}}
On October 7, 2005, President Bush nominated Silver to the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace. On September 8, 2006, it was announced that Silver had joined an advisory committee to the Lewis Libby Legal Defense Trust.{{cite web| url=http://www.scooterlibby.com| title=Message from the Chairman| last=Sembler| first=Mel| date=2006-09-08| website=Libby Legal Defense Trust| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061025184646/http://www.scooterlibby.com| url-status=dead| archive-date=2006-10-25| access-date=2018-12-03}}
President Bush also appointed Silver to the Honorary Delegation that accompanied him to Jerusalem in May 2008 for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel.{{cite news| url=https://www.nysun.com/foreign/bush-visit-may-boost-olmert/76303| title=Bush Visit May Boost Olmert| last=Lake| first=Eli| date=2008-05-13| newspaper=The New York Sun| access-date=2018-12-03}}
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".{{cite news |url=http://news.sky.com/story/640351/west-wings-bruno-speaks-to-sky |title=West Wing's Bruno Speaks To Sky |work=Sky News |first=James |last=Cheyne |date=2008-10-10 |access-date=2022-02-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402171011/http://news.sky.com/story/640351/west-wings-bruno-speaks-to-sky |archive-date=2015-04-02}} In his obituary in The New York Times, his brother, Mitchell Silver, was quoted as saying, "He told me that he did vote for Barack Obama in the end".
Death
File:Ron Silver Headstone December 04, 2013.jpgSilver, a long-time smoker,{{cite news |first=Xan |last=Brooks |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/mar/16/ron-silver-dies-aged-62 |title=Ron Silver, star of film, television and theatre, dies aged 62 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=March 16, 2009 |access-date=2012-11-07 |location=London}} died on March 15, 2009, at the age of 62, of esophageal cancer,{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/15/ron.silver.obit/| title=Actor, activist Ron Silver dies at 62| date=2009-03-15| website=CNN| language=en| access-date=2018-12-03}} which had been diagnosed two years earlier.{{cite news| url=https://nypost.com/2009/03/15/ron-silver-dead/| title=Ron Silver Dead| last=Li| first=David K.| date=2009-03-15| newspaper=New York Post| access-date=2018-12-03| language=en-US}} He is buried at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.{{Citation needed |date=March 2023}}
Filmography
= Film =
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year !Title !Role !class="unsortable" | Notes |
| 1976
|Dr. Manuel Labor |film debut |
| 1976
|Massuese |Uncredited |
| 1977
|Vlada Kostov | |
| 1982
|Dr. Tom Halman | |
| 1982
|data-sort-value="Entity, The" | The Entity |Phil Sneiderman | |
| 1982
|Larry Weisman | |
| 1983
|Ted Caruso | |
| 1983
|Paul Stone | |
| 1984
|Vendor | |
| 1984
|data-sort-value="Goodbye People, The" | The Goodbye People |Eddie Bergson | |
| 1984
|Gilbert Rolfe | |
| 1984
|Gary Frantz | |
| 1987
|Mickey McSorely | |
| 1989
|Herman Broder | |
| 1990
|Eugene Hunt | |
| 1990
| |
| 1991
|Leo Rothenberg | |
| 1991
|data-sort-value="Good Policeman, The" | The Good Policeman |Isaac Seidel | |
| 1992
|Frank Traveres | |
| 1992
|Larry Meyerson | |
| 1994
|Sen. Aaron McComb | |
| 1995
|Colonel Baron |Direct-to-Video |
| 1996
|data-sort-value="Arrival, The" | The Arrival |Phil Gordian / Mexican Guard | |
| 1996
|Director #2 - LA | |
| 1996
|Maurice Dupont | |
| 1998
|data-sort-value="White Raven, The" | The White Raven |Tully Windsor | |
| 1999
|Simon Herzel | |
| 2001
|Rick Yorkin | |
| 2001
|Ali | |
| 2001
|Gary Whitford |Direct-to-Video |
| 2002
|data-sort-value="Wisher, The" | The Wisher |Campbell | |
| 2005
|Sidney | |
| 2006
|Judge Sidney Finestein | |
| 2006
|Call It Fiction |Chas |Short |
| 2007
|data-sort-value="Ten, The" | The Ten |Fielding Barnes | |
| 2009
|data-sort-value="Secret Promise, A" | A Secret Promise |Sam Dunbar |(final film role) |
= Television =
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year !Title !Role !class="unsortable" | Notes |
| 1974
|data-sort-value="Mac Davis Show, The" | The Mac Davis Show |unknown |unknown episode |
| f
|1975 |Enzo |Episode: "Hellow Poppa" |
| 1975
|Art |Episode: "Secrets for Sale" |
| 1975
|Sonny Michaels |Episode: "Mucho, Macho" |
| 1976
|data-sort-value="Rockford Files, The" | The Rockford Files |Ted Haller |Episode: "The Italian Bird Fiasco" |
| 1976
|data-sort-value="Return of the World's Greatest Detective, The" | The Return of the World's Greatest Detective |Dr. Collins |Television Movie |
| 1976–1978
|Gary Levy |series regular; 33 episodes |
| 1978
|Lamar |Episode: "Careers" |
| 1978
|Larry Cook |Television Movie |
| 1978
|Bob Cohen |Television Movie |
| 1979
|Dear Detective |Detective Schwartz |4 episodes |
| 1980
|Kolodny |Episode: "Private Eye" |
| 1980
|data-sort-value="Stockard Channing Show, The" | The Stockard Channing Show |Brad Gabriel |series regular; 13 episodes |
| 1981
|David Lerner |Television Series |
| 1982
|Mike Locasale |6 episodes; recurring role |
| 1983
|Sam Weiser |2 episodes |
| 1984
|Gruenwald |Episode: "The Cafeteria" |
| 1985
|Thaddeus Cohen |Television Miniseries; 2 episodes |
| 1986
|Dr. Jeff Tomlinson |Television Movie |
| 1987
|Driving Instructor |Episode: "Drive, She Said" |
| 1987
|Ron Levin |Television Movie |
| 1988
|data-sort-value="Father's Revenge, A" | A Father's Revenge |Max Greewald |Television Movie |
| 1988–1989
|David Sternberg |5 episodes; recurring role |
| 1990
|Asa Kaufman |Episode: "Fellow Traveller" |
| 1990
|Forgotten Prisoners: The Amnesty Files |Jordan Ford |Television Movie |
| 1993
|Doug Kaines |Television Movie |
| 1993
|Terman |Television Movie; also Director |
| 1995
|data-sort-value="Woman of Independent Means, A" | A Woman of Independent Means |Arthur |Television Miniseries; 3 episodes |
| 1995
|Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story |Television Movie |
| 1995
|Henry A. Kissinger/Narrator |Television Movie |
| 1996
|Shadow Zone: The Undead Express |Valentine |Television Movie |
| 1996–1997
|Tommy Wilmette |11 episodes; recurring role |
| 1997
|data-sort-value="Beneficiary, The" | The Beneficiary |Guy Girard |Television Movie |
| 1997
|Skeletons |Peter Crane |Television Movie |
| 1998
|Mitch Bloom |Television Movie |
| 1998–1999
|Alec Bilson |series regular; 23 episodes (season 2) |
| 1999
|Love Is Strange |Tom Ainsworth |Television Movie |
| 1999
|Tom Lenahan |Television Movie |
| 1999
|Ron Silver |Television Short |
| 2000
|Ratz |Herb Soric |Television Movie |
| 2000
|Lieutenant Brian Margate |Television Movie |
| 2000
|Robert Shapiro |Television Movie |
| 2001
|Bobby Riggs |Television Movie |
| 2001
|data-sort-value="Practice, The" | The Practice |Attorney John Mockler |Episode: "Killing Time" |
| 2001–2006
|data-sort-value="West Wing, The" | The West Wing |19 episodes; recurring role |
| 2002
|Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story |Mike Fine |Television Movie |
| 2003–2004
|Skin |Larry Goldman |6 episodes; recurring role |
| 2004
|Jack |Paul |Television Movie |
| 2004–2007
|Bernie Adler |2 episodes |
| 2006
|Bernie Alder |Episode: "Eros in the Upper Eighties" |
| 2007
|Shelly Levine |Episode: "Night of the Living Dead" |
| 2008
|Xenophobia |President |Television Movie |
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0798779}}
- {{IBDB name}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Ron Silver
|list =
{{DramaDesk PlayOutstandingActor 1975-2000}}
{{TonyAward PlayLeadActor 1976-2000}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver, Ron}}
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American political writers
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:Burials at Westchester Hills Cemetery
Category:School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni
Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer in New York (state)
Category:Drama Desk Award winners
Category:East Side Hebrew Institute alumni
Category:Jewish American male actors
Category:Male actors from Manhattan
Category:New York (state) Democrats
Category:New York (state) independents
Category:Sirius Satellite Radio
Category:St. John's University (New York City) alumni
Category:Stuyvesant High School alumni
Category:Tobacco-related deaths
Category:University at Buffalo alumni
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers
Category:American male bloggers
Category:People from the Lower East Side
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American Jews