Actor Felix Silla (left), visits with artist Doug Kincaid during a Sept., 2006 visit to St. Louis Felix Silla is a veteran motion picture and television actor and stuntman of Italian origin, best known for his role as "Cousin Itt" on television's "The Addams Family", and many other classic character roles. Image File history File links Felix&Doug. ...
Image File history File links Felix&Doug. ...
Doug Kincaid (b. ...
Actors in period costume sharing a joke while waiting between takes during location filming An actor is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramatic production. ...
A stunt double is a type of body double, specifically a skilled replacement used for dangerous film or video sequences, in movies and television (such as jumping out of a building, jumping from vehicle to vehicle, or other similar actions), and for other sophisticated stunts (especially fight scenes). ...
Cousin Itt is a member of the fictional Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams. ...
The Addams Family is the creation of American cartoonist Charles Addams. ...
Biography and Career Overview
Felix Silla was born on January 11, 1937 in a small village outside Rome, Italy. Silla trained as a circus performer, came to the United States in 1955, and toured with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His multiple talents as a bareback rider, trapeze artist and tumbler brought him to Hollywood, where he became a stuntman, starting with the Gig Young-Shirley Jones vehicle, A Ticklish Affair. His best-known roles are Litvak, the maniacal, miniature Hitler who menaces George Segal in The Black Bird (his favorite role), and Cousin Itt on the long-running TV series, The Addams Family. In part due to his short stature of 1.19 m (3 ft 11 in), he has doubled, often for children, in such movies as The Towering Inferno, The Hindenburg, and Battlestar Galactica. Between movies, he frequently appears in Las Vegas and Reno night clubs with his own musical combo, "The Original Harmonica Band." Silla and wife Susan — a "little person," like himself — have been married since 1965 and have two children, Bonnie and Michael. January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area - City 1,285 km² (580 sq mi...
Ringling Bros. ...
The Addams Family is the creation of American cartoonist Charles Addams. ...
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 disaster movie adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. ...
The Hindenburg (1975) is a movie based on the disaster of the German airship Hindenburg. ...
Battlestar Galactica is the pilot for the American science fiction television series which was produced in 1978 by Glen Larson starring Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict. ...
Trivia When he arrived in the United States at age 16, he spoke not a word of English and had no formal acting experience, but credits joining the Ringling Bros. circus with teaching him both language and performance skills, working first in the sideshow and then becoming skilled as both a clown and a bareback rider.
His audition for his most famous role, television's "Cousin Itt" of The Addams Family, was as mysterious to him at the time as the popular character would soon be to millions of viewers. Arriving at the studio, he received little more than a quick looking over by the director and producer, who merely said "That's Itt!" and told him to come back Monday morning and report for work. He returned home for the weekend, pleased to have passed the audition but still completely unaware of who (or what) he had been hired to portray on The Addams Family. Not until Monday morning, just hours before he made his debut as "Cousin Itt", did he have any idea as to the nature of the character.
Although the character of Cousin Itt did not debut on The Addams Family until over a third of the way through the entire series, Silla's delightfully odd and inspired performance of the character made him so popular that Cousin Itt was carried over into both the animated series and the motion picture versions of The Addams Family, even though the character was a creation of television producer David Levy and not part of the original Charles Addams cartoons.
Silla was almost killed while working as the stunt double for "Short Round" in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom during the filming of the river rapids scene. The life raft in which he was riding flipped over in the turbulent water and he was trapped underneath it for some time with a faulty inflatable life vest, nearly drowning until a safety diver could reach him and pull him to safety. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 action/adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. ...
Recent Projects These days, Silla enjoys touring the world and meeting fans at the dozens of Sci-Fi and nostalgia conventions he appears at every year. Currently, he is co-producing a science fiction convention scheduled to take place in the Midwest in 2007. Science fiction conventions are gatherings of the community of fans (called science fiction fandom) of various forms of science fiction and fantasy. ...
References St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 7, 2006, "They Don't Come Much Bigger"..., article on Felix Silla
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