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| Felix Silla | |||||
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| Portrays: | Twiki, Odee-x | ||||
| Date of Birth: | January 11, 1937 | ||||
| Date of Death: | April 16, 2021 | ||||
| Age at Death: | 84 | ||||
| Nationality: |  IT
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[{{{site}}} Official Site]
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Felix Silla (born January 11, 1937 near Rome, Italy, died April 16, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.[1]) was an Italian-American television and movie actor and former circus performer. Silla was one a rare group of actors who have had roles in each of the largest science fiction sagas: the original 1966 Star Trek, the 1978 Battlestar Galactica, and the final movie of the Star Wars original trilogy, Return of the Jedi.
Silla was born with dwarfism, and thus portrayed a variety of genre characters within that scale. For Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, he portrayed the physicality of Twiki (voiced by Mel Blanc and Bob Elyea), and as the alien Odee-X in the Season 2 two-parter, "Journey to Oasis."
Training as a circus performer, Silla came to the United States in 1955. Once in America, he toured with the famed Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His talents with horses and as an acrobat brought him to the attention of Hollywood where he relocated to work as a stuntman.
His first role in that capacity was with motion picture A Ticklish Affair. He worked as a stunt double in such hits as The Towering Inferno, and The Hindenberg.
Expanding into acting, his best known roles include the insane small Hitler from The Black Bird and Cousin Itt on the classic television series, The Addams Family.
In the 1978 Battlestar Galactica, Silla was the person inside the costume of the character Lucifer, which was voiced by Jonathan Harris. He was also Noah Hathaway's stunt-double.
Silla also had a large number of science fiction genre appearances, including portraying Twiki in Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century, the child gorilla in the original Planet of the Apes, an Ewok in Return of the Jedi, and a Talosian in the original pilot for Star Trek.
Silla frequently appears in Las Vegas with his musical group, "The Original Harmonica Band."
Silla has been married to his wife Susan since 1965. They have two children, Bonnie and Michael.
He died on April 16, 2021, and the news was first broken by friend and fellow actor Gil Gerard (star of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) in a posting on Twitter[2]. Earlier that day, Gerard updated fans that Silla's family had been moving Silla to hospice care, after speaking to them the night before. According to Gerard, Silla had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer[3].
External Links
- The Worlds of Felix Silla (Official Site)
- Felix Silla interview on his part as Lucifer
- Internet Movie Database Profile
- Felix Silla article at Battlestar Wiki, the Battlestar Galactica wiki.
References
- ↑ Crowther, Linnea (19 April 2021). "Legacy.com: Felix Silla (1927–2021), actor who played Cousin Itt on “The Addams Family”". Retrieved on 19 April 2021.
- ↑ Gerard, Gil (16 April 2021). "Gil Gerard's Twitter: "Felix died just a few hours ago and the only good I can draw from his passing is that he didn’t suffer any longer. I will miss him terribly, especially the great time we had at our panels. Just him telling me to ,” go ‘ f ‘ myself”."". Retrieved on 19 April 2021.
- ↑ Gerard, Gil (16 April 2021). "Gil Gerard's Twitter: "It is with a heavy heart that I tell you all that my dear friend of over forty years, Felix Silla, is dying of pancreatic cancer. I spoke briefly with him and his family last night and they tell me that he’s going into hospice care today. Prayers ."". Retrieved on 19 April 2021.