Phil Silvers (born May 11, 1911) was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah".
Birth Name: Philip Silver
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 11"
Nickname: "The King of Chutzpah"
Quote: "You're brilliant? Say something in algebra."
Silvers started entertaining at age 11, when he would sing in theaters when the film projector broke down (a common occurrence in those days), to the point where he was allowed to keep attending the same movie theater free of charge, to sing through any future breakdowns. By age 13, he was working as a singer in the Gus Edwards Revue, and then worked in vaudeville and as a burlesque comic.
He made his feature film début in Hit Parade of 1941 in 1940. Over the next two decades, he worked as a character actor for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox, in such films as 1942's All Through the Night with Humphrey Bogart, Lady Be Good (1941), Coney Island (1943), Cover Girl (1944), and Summer Stock (1950). When the studio system began to decline, he returned to the stage. Cover Girl demonstrates that Silvers was an accomplished dancer, performing flawlessly in quick-tempo trios with famed dancers Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth.
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 the 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 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 1958, CBS switched the show to be telecast on Friday nights and moved the setting to Camp Fremont in California.
Throughout the 1960s, he appeared in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)] and 40 Pounds of Trouble (1963).
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 the classic 1966 episode "The Producer" on Gilligan's Island,
His guest appearances continued into the early 1980s, including 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). In 1978, Silvers played the cab driver "Hoppy" in Neil Simon's send-up of hard-boiled detective films, The Cheap Detective, which starred Peter Falk. His final appearance was in an episode of CHiPs in 1983.
On November 1, 1985, Silvers died in his sleep in Century City, California. According to his family, Silvers died of natural causes. He was 74.
Birth Name: Philip Silver
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 11"
Nickname: "The King of Chutzpah"
Quote: "You're brilliant? Say something in algebra."
Silvers started entertaining at age 11, when he would sing in theaters when the film projector broke down (a common occurrence in those days), to the point where he was allowed to keep attending the same movie theater free of charge, to sing through any future breakdowns. By age 13, he was working as a singer in the Gus Edwards Revue, and then worked in vaudeville and as a burlesque comic.
He made his feature film début in Hit Parade of 1941 in 1940. Over the next two decades, he worked as a character actor for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox, in such films as 1942's All Through the Night with Humphrey Bogart, Lady Be Good (1941), Coney Island (1943), Cover Girl (1944), and Summer Stock (1950). When the studio system began to decline, he returned to the stage. Cover Girl demonstrates that Silvers was an accomplished dancer, performing flawlessly in quick-tempo trios with famed dancers Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth.
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 the 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 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 1958, CBS switched the show to be telecast on Friday nights and moved the setting to Camp Fremont in California.
Throughout the 1960s, he appeared in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)] and 40 Pounds of Trouble (1963).
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 the classic 1966 episode "The Producer" on Gilligan's Island,
His guest appearances continued into the early 1980s, including 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). In 1978, Silvers played the cab driver "Hoppy" in Neil Simon's send-up of hard-boiled detective films, The Cheap Detective, which starred Peter Falk. His final appearance was in an episode of CHiPs in 1983.
On November 1, 1985, Silvers died in his sleep in Century City, California. According to his family, Silvers died of natural causes. He was 74.
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