American stage and screen actor who oozed menace in his many roles as the bad guy, heavy or villain
The actor Henry Silva, one of the screen’s most chilling villains, who has died aged 95, once complained: “I got typecast as a heavy. There’s no reason in the world for me to be a heavy, none. People love to put handles on you. They’re not thinking about you, they’re thinking about themselves.”
Nevertheless, Silva’s dark, sepulchral looks got him cast almost invariably as a bad guy and, given Hollywood stereotyping, as evil “foreign-looking” types. Silva oozed menace on screen, like a cobra ready to strike. Generally he appeared stern and taciturn, but he was never more dangerous than when he smiled or laughed.
