Phil Silvers

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Philip "Phil" Silvers (born May 11, 1911 in Brooklyn , New York City , † November 1, 1985 in Century City , Los Angeles , California ) was an American entertainer and actor , mainly in comedies. His nickname was The King of Chutzpha ("King of Chutzpah ").

career

Phil Silvers was born as Philip Silver, the youngest of eight children. The Russian-Jewish family was poor, the father was one of the workers who built the first New York skyscrapers. Silvers started entertainment at the early age of eleven: he sang in cinemas when the screenings had to be interrupted again because of the unreliable projectors.

Two years later, he left school to become a professional singer and appear in vaudeville shows. He made his Broadway debut on the Yokel Boy show and immediately got rave reviews. He won two Tony Awards for his appearances, especially in musicals and comedies : the first in 1952 for Top Banana, the second in 1972 for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

From 1940 on he played in Hollywood films for MGM , Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox , mostly in comedies, of course, but also in dramas. In 1955 he created his best-known role, Sergeant Bilko on the Phil Silvers Show, a gambler and philanderer who is in dire financial straits and constantly working on new gimmicks and scams to make money. In 2003, The Phil Silvers Show was named Best Sitcom of All Time by the BBC Guide to Television Comedy .

In the 1960s, Silvers stepped into the comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad , Mad World (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) and A Funny Thing Happened the ancient Romans (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) on. He made regular guest appearances on the television shows by Carol Burnett and Dean Martin . In 1967, Silvers appeared in a film in the English Carry On series, It's Crazy - No Water Flows in the Desert (Follow That Camel). He was paid £ 30,000 for the film, one of the highest sums an actor in the series has ever received, but the flick did not become a commercial success.

Silvers was close friends with Frank Sinatra ; Among other things, he accompanied Sinatra in the spring of 1945 on his first international tour to Canada , Morocco , Algeria and Italy . To a tune the composer Jimmy Van Heusen he texted 1943, the first Van Heusens wife dedication song Bessy (With The Laughing Face), the play adapted then briefly for the actress Betsy Blair , and finally revised the text for the fourth anniversary of Sinatra's daughter Nancy in June 1944. As Nancy (With The Laughing Face) , it became one of Sinatra's most successful recordings of the 1940s.

Like many comedians, Silvers was not a happy person privately. He suffered from depression and was addicted to gambling . Despite being very ill in the last few years of his life, Silvers continued to appear in films and on television. Noteworthy is a cameo on Happy Days as the father of the character Jenny Piccolo, played by Silver's real daughter, Cathy Silvers . In 1973 Silvers published his autobiography .

Silvers on stage

  • 1939: Yokel Boy
  • 1947: High Button Shoes
  • 1951: Top Banana
  • 1960: Thu Re Wed
  • 1971: How The Other Half Loves
  • 1972: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Filmography (selection)

cinemamovies

watch TV

  • 1955–1959: The Phil Silvers Show (TV series)
  • 1960: The Slowest Gun in the West (TV movie)
  • 1967: Damn Yankees! (TV movie)
  • 1969–1970: The Beverly Hillbillies (TV series)
  • 1971: Eddie (TV movie)
  • 1975: The Bad Five ( SWAT, TV series)
  • 1977: Love Boat ( The Love Boat, TV series)
  • 1977: Charlie's Angels ( Charlie's Angels, television series)
  • 1981: Happy Days (TV series)
  • 1983: CHiPs ( CHiPs, TV series)

Awards

  • 1951: Tony Award for Top Banana
  • 1955: Emmy for The Phil Rivers Show
  • 1956: Emmy nomination for The Phil Silvers Show
  • 1958: Emmy nomination for The Phil Silvers Show
  • 1961: Tony nomination for Do Re Wed
  • 1971: Tony for A Funny Way Happened on the Way to the Forum
  • 2000: Posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

literature

  • Autobiography:
    • Phil Silvers (with Robert Saffron): This Laugh Is On Me. The Phil Silvers Story. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1973, ISBN 0-13-919100-3 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Silvers, Phil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Silver, Philip (full name); The King of Chutzpha (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 1985
Place of death Century City , Los Angeles , California , United States