Portrait of Henry Silva

Birthday profile

Henry Silva

Henry Silva, American actor (died 2022)

Born
September 15, 1926
Died
September 14, 2022
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1926

About Henry Silva

Henry Silva (September 23, 1926 – September 14, 2022) was an American actor, with a film and television career which spanned fifty years. A prolific character actor in over 140 productions, he was known for his "dark, sepulchral" looks and brooding screen presence that saw him often play criminals, gangsters, or other "tough guys" in crime and action films. He was also closely associated with the "Rat Pack". After a string of minor and supporting parts, Silva had his breakthrough with featured roles in the Rat Pack features Ocean's 11 (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Sergeants 3 (also 1962), followed by the leading role in Johnny Cool (1963). In the following decade, he worked extensively in European cinema, becoming a star of the Italian poliziotteschi genre. During the 1980s, Silva made notable appearances as villains in action films like Sharky's Machine (1981) with Burt Reynolds, the cult classic Megaforce (1982), Cannonball Run II (1984), Code of Silence (1985) with Chuck Norris, Above the Law (1988) with Steven Seagal, and Dick Tracy (1990). He was also the voice of supervillain Bane in the DC Animated Universe. One of his final film roles, before his retirement, was as a mob boss in Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999). Silva gradually became typecast playing mobsters, robbers, and other criminals.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Henry Silva was born

Henry Silva was born in 1926. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1926

  • #1 song"Bye Bye Blackbird"
  • Top movieThe General (Buster Keaton)
  • Best-selling bookThe Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGertrude Ederle swims the English Channel
  • Top headlineA.A. Milne publishes Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Technology milestoneFirst demonstration of television
  • Defining fadFlagpole sitting
  • Notable inventionPop-up toaster
  • World population2.01 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population117.4M

1926 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Henry Silva's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19262026
Gas$0.23$3.45/gal
Average home$6,000$435,000
Average income$3,620$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population117.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.