What did phil silvers die from

Phil Silvers (May 11, – November 1, ) was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a s sitcom set on a U.S. Army post in which he played Sergeant Bilko.

Early life and career

Born Philip Silver on Thursday, May 11, , in Brooklyn, New York, in the working-class Brownsville section, he was the eighth and youngest child of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Saul and Sarah (née Handler) Silver.

His siblings were Lillian, Harry, Jack, Saul, Pearl, Michael, and Reuben Silver. His father, a sheet metal worker, helped build the early New York skyscrapers.

Silvers started entertaining at age 11, when he would sing in theaters when the projector broke down (a common occurrence in those days). By age 13 he was working as a singer in the Gus Edwards Revue, and then worked in vaudeville and as a burlesque comic.

Silvers next worked in short films for the Vitaphone studio, such as Ups and Downs (), and on Broadway, where he made his debut in the short-lived show Yokel Boy in Critics raved about Silvers, who was hailed as the bright spot in the mediocre play.

The Broadway revue High Kickers () was based on his concept.

He made his feature film debut in Hit Parade of in (his previous appearance as a 'pitch man' in Strike Up the Band was cut). Over the next two decades, he worked as a character actor for MGM, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox, in such films as Lady Be Good (), Coney Island (), Cover Girl (), and Summer Stock ().When the studio system began to decline, he returned to the stage.

Silvers wrote the lyrics for Frank Sinatra's "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)". Although he was not a songwriter, he wrote the lyrics while visiting composer Jimmy Van Heusen. The two composed the song for Van Heusen's writing partner Johnny Burke, for his wife Bessie's birthday. Substituting Sinatra's little daughter's name Nancy at her birthday party, the trio impressed the singer to record it himself.

The song became a popular hit in and was a staple in Sinatra's live performances.

Silvers scored a major triumph in Top Banana, a Broadway show of Silvers played Jerry Biffle, the egocentric, always-busy star of a major television show. (The character is said to have been based on Milton Berle.) Silvers dominated the show and won a Tony Award for his performance.

He repeated the role in the film version that was originally released in 3-D.

According to the documentary on the DVD of It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Silvers was not a traditional comedian: he was a comic actor. Silvers never did stand-up, and out of character, he was not known for cracking jokes.

s fame and later career

Silvers became a household name in when he starred as Sergeant Ernest G.

Bilko in You'll Never Get Rich, later retitled The Phil Silvers Show. The military comedy became a television hit, with the opportunistic Bilko fast-talking his way through one obstacle after another. In CBS switched the show to be telecast on Friday nights and moved the setting to Camp Fremont in California.

A year later the show was off the schedule.

Silvers returned to Broadway in the musical Do Re Mi in December , receivng a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. Stanley Green wrote that "It was particularly blessed by offering two outstanding clowns in Phil Silvers as the pushiest of patsies and Nancy Walker." Throughout the s he appeared in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ()and 40 Pounds of Trouble ().

He was featured in Marilyn Monroe's last film, the unfinished Something's Got to Give (). In the – television season, he appeared as Harry Grafton, a factory foreman interested in get-rich-quick schemes, much like the previous Bilko character, in CBS's episode The New Phil Silvers Show, with co-stars Stafford Repp, Herbie Faye, Buddy Lester, Elena Verdugo as his sister, Audrey, and her children, played by Ronnie Dapo and Sandy Descher.

In he starred as a guest in one of the British Carry On films, Follow That Camel, a Foreign Legion parody in which he played a variation of the Sergeant Bilko character, Sergeant Nocker. Producer Peter Rogers employed him to ensure the Carry On films' success in America. Silvers' presence did not ensure the film's success on either side of the Atlantic.

Buddy hackett biography: The military comedy became a television hit, with the opportunistic Bilko fast-talking his way through one obstacle after another. February 21, Their appearances were valuable because the city would flood with wealthy gamblers. The Desert Sun.

His salary was £30,, the largest Carry On salary ever, only later met by the appearance of Elke Sommer in Carry On Behind.

Silvers was offered the leading role of conniving Roman slave Pseudolus in the Broadway musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Silvers declined, and the role went instead to Zero Mostel, who was so successful in the role that he repeated the role in the film version.

By this time Silvers realized his error, and agreed to appear in the film as a secondary character, flesh merchant Marcus Lycus. When actor-producer Larry Blyden mounted a Broadway revival of Forum in , he wanted Phil Silvers to play the lead, and this time Silvers agreed. The revival was a hit and Silvers became the first actor ever to win a Tony Award in a revival of a show.

Silvers also guested on The Beverly Hillbillies, and various TV variety shows such as The Carol Burnett Show, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and The Dean Martin Show. Perhaps Silvers' most memorable guest appearance was as curmudgeonly Hollywood producer Harold Hecuba in an episode (titled The Producer) on Gilligan's Island (broadcast in ), where he and the castaways performed a musical version of Hamlet.

(Silvers' production company Gladasya – named after his catchphrase "Gladdaseeya!" – financed the show).

Illness and death

Silvers suffered a stroke during the run of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in August He was left with slurred speech. Despite his poor health, he continued working into the early s including co-starring in The Chicken Chronicles,an appearance on Fantasy Island as an old comic trying to reunite with his old partner, and on Happy Days as the father of Jenny Piccolo (played by his daughter Cathy Silvers).

A frail Silvers, interviewed shortly before his death, revealed one of his secrets: "I’m an impatient comedian. And I feel the audience is as impatient as me."

Silvers died in his sleep on November 1, in Century City, California. "Mr. Silvers's family said he died of natural causes." He was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Personal life

Phil Silvers was married twice, to Evelyn Patrick and to Jo-Carroll Dennison. Both of his marriages ended in divorce. He had five daughters — Candace, Cathy, Laurie, Nancey, and Tracey Edythe. all by his second wife.

Silvers was a compulsive gambler and suffered from depression on and off over the years.

While staying in Reno, Nevada, in the s, he would often gamble all night.

On one occasion, at the tiny Cal-Neva Lodge in nearby Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Silvers spent an entire night playing craps until he lost all his money, and then went through $1, in credit. A taxi was called to return him to Reno. It was "[o]ne of the worst nights of my life', Silvers told the driver, adding, "Don't wait for any lights and don't wait for any tip .

.

. I left it at the Cal-Neva!"

His memoirs are titled This Laugh Is On Me.

Legacy

In TV Guide ranked him number 31 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list

In , The Phil Silvers Show was voted Best Sitcomin the Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy. In a poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, Silvers was voted #42 on the list of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Dick Van Dyke, who made his TV debut on Bilko says he "was always fascinated with Phil's sense of timing. Incredible."

Voice actor Daws Butler employed an impression of Silvers as the voice of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Hokey Wolfand also used the same voice in numerous cartoons for Jay Ward. The premise of The Phil Silvers Show was the basis for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Top Cat, for which Arnold Stang moderately imitated Silvers' voice for the title character.

The cartoon series The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog featured a character called Wes Weasley, who had a very similar appearance and voice to Silvers.

The Playboy cartoon "Little Annie Fanny" featured the character of manager Solly Brass, who was based on Phil Silvers.

In The Simpsons episode "Homer the Vigilante" (Episode #1F09, 6 January ), Bart tricks Phil Silvers' character Otto Meyer from the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World into driving into a river."

Stage credits

Source:Internet Broadway Database

• Yokel Boy
• High Button Shoes
• Top Banana – Tony Award (winner)
• Do Re Mi – Tony Award (nominated)
• How the Other Half Loves
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – Tony Award (winner)

Filmography

Source:Turner Classic Movies

• Ups and Downs ()
• Here's Your Hat ()
• The Candid Kid ()
• Strike Up the Band ()
• Hit Parade of ()
• The Wild Man of Borneo ()
• The Penalty ()
• Tom, Dick and Harry ()
• Ice-Capades ()
• Lady Be Good ()
• You're in the Army Now ()
• All Through the Night ()
• Roxie Hart ()
• My Gal Sal ()
• Footlight Serenade ()
• Tales of Manhattan () (scenes deleted)
• Just Off Broadway ()
• Coney Island ()
• A Lady Takes a Chance ()
• Four Jills in a Jeep ()
• Cover Girl ()
• Take It or Leave It ()
• Something for the Boys ()
• Diamond Horseshoe ()
• Don Juan Quilligan ()

• A Thousand and One Nights ()
• If I'm Lucky ()
• Summer Stock ()
• Top Banana ()
• Lucky Me ()
• Something's Got to Give () (uncompleted)
• 40 Pounds of Trouble ()
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ()
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ()
• A Guide for the Married Man ()
• Carry OnFollow That Camel! ()
• Damn Yankees ()
• Buona Sera, Mrs.

  Campbell ()

• The Boatniks ()
• Hollywood Blue ()
• The Strongest Man in the World ()
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood ()
• The Chicken Chronicles ()
• They Took Miss Beautiful ()
• The Cheap Detective ()
• Racquet ()
• The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood ()
• There Goes the Bride ()

External links

Article source:

This information is published under GNU Free Document License (GFDL).

You should be logged in, in order to edit this article.