Phil Silvers
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| Phil Silvers | |||||||||||
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| Born | Philip Silversmith 11 May 1911 New York City, New York, USA |
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| Died | November 1, 1985 (aged 74) Century City, California, USA |
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| Spouse(s) | Jo-Carroll Dennison (1945-1950) Evelyn Patrick (1956-1966) |
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Phil Silvers (May 11, 1911 – November 1, 1985) was an American entertainer and comedy actor. He is best known for his work is The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a US Army post in which he played Sergeant Bilko; the show was also often referred to by this name. The show's chief writer, Nat Hiken, was TV's first writer-producer, and Hiken helped set a high comic tone for the show through his inventive plots and snappy comedic repartee for the characters.
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[edit] Biography
Born Philip Silversmith in Brooklyn, New York, Silvers was the youngest of eight children in a Russian Jewish family. His father was one of the workers on 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). Two years later, he left school to sing professionally, before appearing in vaudeville as a stooge.
Silvers then landed work in short films for the Vitaphone studio, burlesque houses, and on Broadway, where he made his debut in the short-lived show Yokel Boy. The critics raved about Silvers, who was hailed as the bright spot in the mediocre play. He then wrote the revue High Kickers, until he went to Hollywood to star in films.
He made his film debut in Hit Parade of 1941 (1940) (his previous appearance as a pitch man in Strike Up the Band was cut). Over the next two decades, he appeared in character roles 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 started collapsing, 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 on a whim while visiting Sinatra's home with composer Jimmy Van Heusen. The song became a popular hit in 1944 and was a staple in Sinatra's live performances.
Silvers scored a major triumph in Top Banana, a Broadway show of 1952. 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 a 1954 film version that was originally released in 3-D.
Silvers became a household name in 1955 when he starred as Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko in The Phil Silvers Show. The military comedy became a huge television hit, with the opportunistic Bilko fast-talking his way through one obstacle after another. Most episodes of the series were filmed in New York. The series ceased production in 1959, not due to any decline but because of high production costs (the show had a huge ensemble cast; see the Wikipedia entry for The Phil Silvers Show).
Throughout the 1960s he appeared internationally 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 1967 he starred as a guest in one of the famed British Carry On films, Follow That Camel, a Foreign Legion spoof in which he played a variation of the "Sergeant Bilko" character. Producer Peter Rogers employed him to ensure the Carry On films' success in America. His salary was £30,000, the largest Carry On salary ever, only later met by the appearance of Elke Sommer in Carry On Behind. Silvers's presence did not ensure the film's success on either side of the Atlantic.
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 1966 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 1972, he wanted Phil Silvers to play the lead, and this time Silvers agreed. The revival was a big hit.
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") of Gilligan's Island (Silvers's production company Gladasya - named after his catchphrase "Gladdaseeya!" - financed the show).
Silvers was very ill in the last few years of his life, even though he continued work into the early 1980s in film and TV, including a cameo appearance on Happy Days as the father of "Jenny Piccolo" (played by his real-life daughter Cathy Silvers). This was a thrill for Silvers, who was by all accounts a devoted, if absent, father; his ex-wife, Evelyn Silvers, wrote that Phil secretly fought his fear of water in the backyard pool at night, so that he could swim with his four young girls. His daughters are Tracey, Nancey, Catherine, Candace, and Laury. Tracey and Nancey are both screenwriters, Catherine is an actress and stay at home mother, Candace is a life coach, and Laury is a college professor. Silvers has 13 grandchildren by four of his daughters. The DVD release of Gilligan's Island gave special thanks to his daughters.
A frail Silvers, interviewed before his death in 1985, revealed one of his secrets: "I’m an impatient comedian. And I feel the audience is as impatient as me." He died in his sleep of a heart attack in 1985 at age 74.
In 2003, The Phil Silvers Show was voted Best Sitcom in the BBC guide to television comedy. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he 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."
Silvers was as compulsive a gambler in real life as his legendary comic character Sgt. Bilko. He suffered from depression on and off over the years. His memoirs were titled 'The Laughs were on Me'.
When Silvers got to his more elderly years, he was rumored to watch his own movies and television shows over and over in the nursing home.
Silvers bears a resemblance to the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama - in 1987 in Tibet, Chinese soldiers attempted to remove from an English tourist a T-shirt with an image of Silvers. [1]
[edit] Animated tributes
Famed voice actor Daws Butler employed an impression of Silvers as the voice of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Hokey Wolf and also used the same voice in numerous cartoons for Jay Ward. Furthermore, 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.
[edit] Stage credits
- 1939 Yokel Boy
- 1947 High Button Shoes
- 1951 Top Banana
- 1960 Do Re Mi
- 1972 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
[edit] Filmography
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[edit] References
- ^ Ann Rodgers-Melnick (1998) Leader in Exile, Part 2: Dalai Lama's reputation grows Pittsburgh Post Gazette (accessed 18 October 2007)
[edit] External links
- "The Phil Silvers Show" a complete website
- Brief biography
- Phil Silvers at Find A Grave
- Phil Silvers at the Internet Movie Database
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