Howard Da Silva

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Howard Da Silva (born May 4, 1909 in Cleveland , Ohio , as Howard Silverblatt,February 16, 1986 in Ossining , New York ) was an American actor .

Life

Howard Silverblatt was the child of Russian-born Jews who spoke only Yiddish. Before becoming an actor, he worked in steel mills in Cleveland. When he was offered roles, he renamed himself Howard Da Silva. First he went to Broadway in 1930 , where he made a name for himself. He played in Marc Blitzstein's musical The Cradle Will Rock (1937) and in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1943), with whom he gave over 2,000 performances. He made his film debut in 1935 with a supporting role not mentioned in the credits. It was not until 1940 that he was mentioned in the cast information. Until the beginning of the 50s he worked with well-known directors such as Cecil B. DeMille , Billy Wilder or Nicholas Ray and steadily increased his reputation in Hollywood, he did not give up his stage work. His better-known film roles include the bartender Nat in the Oscar-winning alcoholic drama The Lost Weekend (1945), the seedy nightclub owner Eddie Harwood in the film noir The Blue Dahlia (1946) and a villainous arms dealer in the western The Undefeated (1947) alongside Gary Cooper .

In 1947, however, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) became aware of Da Silva after his fellow actor Robert Taylor denounced him as a possible communist. Da Silva was blacklisted and could not find work in film, television or radio. His last film, Slaughter Trail , in which he would have been named as the leading actor for the first time in the opening credits and which had already been shot, was not approved by Howard Hughes and his scenes with Brian Donlevy were shot again. Da Silva went back to the theater instead and had great success there. His last film, actually released for a long time, remained a remake of the German classic M , in which he played the police inspector Carney, who was responsible for Commissioner Lohmann .

After the end of the McCarthy era , he was able to resume filming in the early 1960s. Above all, his depictions of historical personalities stood out here. Da Silva played the Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev , the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977), the American statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin in the musical film 1776 (1972, he had the role in played the Broadway play of the same name) and in Meine liebe Rabenmutter (1981) the film producer Louis B. Mayer , the founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) .

For the US television he presented the British science fiction - television series Doctor Who . He also played in some television series, e.g. B. in The Outer Limits , Kung Fu , Auf der Flucht u. a. Between 1974 and 1977 he was also the speaker of 26 episodes of the CBS radio play series Radio Mystery Theater .

Howard Da Silva died at the age of 76 of complications from malignant lymphoma , a serious disease of the lymphatic system.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

  • 1960: nominated for the Tony Award for best supporting actor in the musical Fiorello!
  • 1964: Nominated for the British Film Academy Award for best foreign actor in the film David and Lisa
  • 1978: Emmy for best supporting role in the television series Verna: USO Girl

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Stephen Birmingham: The Rest of Us: The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews. Syracuse University Press, 1999, p. 346