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.
