The Phil Silvers Sgt. Bilk Anniversary DVD
Buy Now!

Biography

Born Fischl Silver in Brooklyn, New York, Silvers was the youngest of eight children in a Russian Jewish family. His father was one of the workers on the early New York skyscrapers. Silvers started entertaining at age 11, when he would sing in theaters 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.

Silvers then landed work in short films for the Vitaphone studio, burlesque houses, and on Broadway, where he made his debut in the short-lived show Yokel Boy. Critics raved about Silvers, who was hailed as the bright spot in the mediocre play. He then wrote the revue High Kickers, until he went to Hollywood to star in films.

He made his film debut in Hit Parade of 1941 (1940) (his previous appearance as a pitch man in Strike Up the Band was cut). Over the next two decades, he appeared in character roles for MGM, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox, in such films as Lady Be Good, Coney Island, Cover Girl, and Summer Stock. When the studio system started collapsing, he returned to the stage.

Silvers wrote the lyrics for Frank Sinatra's "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)". Although he was not a songwriter, he wrote the lyrics on a whim while visiting Sinatra's home with composer Jimmy Van Heusen. The song became a popular hit in 1944 and was a staple in Sinatra's live performances.

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 a 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 The Phil Silvers Show. The military comedy became a huge television hit, with the opportunistic Bilko fast-talking his way through one obstacle after another. Most episodes of the series were filmed in New York. The series ceased production in 1959, not owing to any decline in popularity but because of high production costs (the show had a huge ensemble cast; see the Wikipedia entry for The Phil Silvers Show).

Throughout the 1960s he appeared internationally in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and 40 Pounds of Trouble. He was featured in Marilyn Monroe's last film, the unfinished Something's Got to Give. In 1967 he starred as a guest in one of the famed British Carry On films, Follow That Camel, a Foreign Legion spoof in which he played a variation of the "Sergeant Bilko" character. Producer 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. Silvers' presence did not ensure the film's success on either side of the Atlantic.

Silvers was offered the leading role of conniving Roman slave Pseudolus in the Broadway musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Silvers declined, and the role went instead to Zero Mostel, who was so successful in the role that he repeated the role in the 1966 film version. By this time Silvers realized his error, and agreed to appear in the film as a secondary character, flesh merchant Marcus Lycus. When actor-producer Larry Blyden mounted a Broadway revival of Forum in 1972, he wanted Phil Silvers to play the lead, and this time Silvers agreed. The revival was a big hit.

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 an episode (titled "The Producer") of Gilligan's Island (Silvers's production company Gladasya - named after his catchphrase "Gladdaseeya!" - financed the show).

Illness and death

In 1972, Silvers suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered. Despite his poor health, he continued working into the early 1980s including an appearances on Fantasy Island as a old comic trying to reunite with his old partner, and on Happy Days as the father of "Jenny Piccolo" (played by his real-life daughter Cathy Silvers). A frail Silvers, interviewed before his death, revealed one of his secrets: "I’m an impatient comedian. And I feel the audience is as impatient as me."

Silvers died on November 1, 1985 in Century City, California at the age of 74. The cause of death was a heart attack. He was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

 Trivia

In 2003, The Phil Silvers Show was voted Best Sitcom in the BBC guide to television comedy. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted #42 on the list of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Dick Van Dyke, who made his TV debut on "Bilko", says he "was always fascinated with Phil's sense of timing. Incredible."

Silvers was as compulsive a gambler in real life as his legendary comic character Sgt. Bilko. He suffered from depression on and off over the years. His memoirs were titled 'The Laughs were on Me'.

He was rumored to watch his own movies and television shows over and over while living in a nursing home.

Officially, Silvers bears a resemblance to the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama - in 1987 in Tibet, Chinese soldiers attempted to remove from an English tourist a T-shirt with an image of Silvers.

 Animated tributes

Famed 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, for which Arnold Stang moderately imitated Silvers' voice for the title character. The 1993 cartoon series The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, featured a character called Wes Weasley, who had a very similar appearance and voice to him.

Films

* Ups and Downs (1937)
* Here's Your Hat (1937)
* The Candid Kid (1938)
* Strike Up the Band (1940)
* Hit Parade of 1941 (1940)
* The Wild Man of Borneo (1941)
* The Penalty (1941)
* Tom, Dick and Harry (1941)
* Ice-Capades (1941)
* Lady Be Good (1941)
* You're in the Army Now (1941)
* All Through the Night (1942)
* Roxie Hart (1942)
* My Gal Sal (1942)
* Footlight Serenade (1942)
* Tales of Manhattan (1942)



* Just Off Broadway (1942)
* Coney Island (1943)
* A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)
* Four Jills in a Jeep (1944)
* Cover Girl (1944)
* Take It or Leave It (1944)
* Something for the Boys (1944)
* Diamond Horseshoe (1945)
* Don Juan Quilligan (1945)
* A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
* If I'm Lucky (1946)
* Summer Stock (1950)
* Top Banana (1954)
* Lucky Me (1954)
* Something's Got to Give (1962)
* 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962)



* It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
* A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
* A Guide for the Married Man (1967)
* Carry On...Follow That Camel! (1967)
* Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968)
* The Boatniks (1970)
* Hollywood Blue (1970)
* The Strongest Man in the World (1975)
* Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
* The Chicken Chronicles (1977)
* Hey, Abbott! (1978)
* The Cheap Detective (1978)
* Racquet (1979)
* The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980)
* There Goes the Bride (1980)