Phil Silvers (May 11, 1911 - November 1, 1985) was an American entertainer and comedy actor.
His best-known 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. He won a Tony Award for Best Banana in 1952.
Born Philip Silversmith in Brooklyn, New York, Silvers was the youngest of eight children. His father, a Russian Jewish immigrant, was one of the workers on the early New York skyscrapers. Silvers started entertaining at age 11, when he would sing in cinemas 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.
He famously starred as a guest in one of the Carry On films, Follow That Camel (1967), as a Sergeant Bilko character in a spoof of the Foreign Legion films. 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 (1975). Despite his appearance in the film, he didn't ensure the film's success on either side of the Atlantic.
The 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.
Silvers was very ill in the last few years of his life, even though he continued work into the 1980s. He died in 1985.
In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. [1]
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Last updated: 05-17-2005 03:51:56
