Actor/Activist Ron Silver Dies-Succumbs to Cancer at age 62

[babylonsister]

RON SILVER DIES
SUCCUMBS TO CANCER AT AGE 62

By DAVID K. LI

Posted: 7:50 pm
March 15, 2009



Actor and longtime political activist Ron Silver died this morning, succumbing to a long battle with cancer, friends of the liberal Democrat-turned-GOP stalwart told The Post.

"Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning," said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create.

"He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years and his family is making arrangements for a private service."

Friends of Silver first told Post columnist Cindy Adams of the native New Yorker's death.

The steely-eyed, blunt-talking Silver, 62, enjoyed a long career on the stage, TV and in movies, and most recently hosted a public affairs talk show on Sirius satellite radio.

Silver might be best known for playing legal scholar Alan Dershowitz in "Reversal of Fortune," about the successful appeal of Claus von Bulow's conviction for putting his socialite wife into a permanent coma.

Once a self-identified lifelong Democrat, Silver was a founding member of the liberal-leaning Creative Coalition in 1989. But he made a breathtaking political transformation, going from far left to radical right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

more...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03152009/news/regionalnews/ron_silver_dies_159710.htm

[FrenchieCat]

1. May he RIP......

That is all that I will say.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Noooo!

I didn't even know he had cancer!

RIP.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

29. September 2, 2008

Here's a picture of Silver with Tucker Carlson at a Huffington Post luncheon - he was pretty sick then, it appears.

[rainbow4321]

30. OMG, he looks so different

I know illness and the treatment can change a person's looks but he looks like a totally different person..sooo much more aged.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

32. Hair loss and pain -

they can change a person's looks completely. And esophegeal cancer is painful as hell.

Poor guy.

But, give him credit - he kept going out and being active, even if we thought he was on the wrong side...............

[rainbow4321]

36. No kidding...imagine going to a public function feeling that way

I can't even get to the store when I have a crappy cold.

Here's another pic from that night:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

38. He looked better in the indirect light,

and he was smiling. Good for him.

I have seen people in the worst imaginable pain, looking like they could die at any moment, get up and do things because they refused to give in to their disease. The power of the human spirit has humbled me more than once. I don't know that I possess it, because, like you, I fold quickly.

But, I have wondered if I'd be that resolute and courageous. Embracing life right up to the end. It's a glorious thing to see.

[ColbertWatcher]

39. I hadn't heard. n/t

[babylonsister]

41. I didn't know he was sick either. That picture, had I seen it last year,

would have convinced me.

[MadMaddie]

3. May he rest in peace.

I have a question though, what is it about 9/11 that frightened these people so much that they took a complete turn in their political beliefs? It wasn't a Democratic administration at the helm when we got hit? It wasn't the Democratic Administrations fault that the * admin refused to heed the warnings that we were going to get hit.

Can someone explain this?

[bluestateguy]

10. It happened to quite a few people

They became really right wing after 9/11. They just never got over it. They were so desperate to feel "safe", they'd let the government do anything. I actaully rather pity them.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. Fear will make people do that

I think almost everyone, including myself will admit to some initial anger and reactionary attitudes after 9/11 about what we needed to do in response. Eventually it wears off, but for some it just runs too deep. For some reason, Republicans have cornered the market as the "good at war" party.

By the way, I just watched "V is For Vendetta" last night.......that sort of question runs through it.

[MadMaddie]

20. V- Vendetta one of my favorite movies!!

[Raine]

24. I was scared too

for maybe a number of weeks but then one day I "woke up" and realized that was no way to live ... Thank God! In the end what killed him ... it wasn't terrorism, it was ... cancer.

[pretzel4gore]

15. chickens=home=roost

the liars have been in control for a long time. For example, they never 'fessed up that the 'Gulf of Tonkin' resolution was based upon a fraud-though they sorta pretended about 1985 that, hey, they always knew it and surely the country knew it- besides that's old news etc. What happened was a part of the reactionary right/fundy xian fascist racist political movement have simply been too successful in defanging the left. About the time of regan, demonising the left has gone on relentlessly, though the left has basically retired from the field. The Israeli sympathisers/activists in the news media saw that allying themselves and Israel with fascistic right was best way to defend Israel- they think if it comes down to murder and lying, they'll get rid of the fascistic right's leadership (see limbah-humbug, Barack's election etc)...unfortunately, there really isn't any 'true story' out there. They've redefined truth, they've redefined out there, they've redefined newsmedia, gov, lawn'order, integrity and facts etc
"Nothing fails like success when working for the devil" is the politically powerfuls' problem in a nutshell

[MadMaddie]

21. Thanks, I think you are on to something.

[merh]

22. F.E.A.R.

that emotion controlled millions of folks - I mean think about it, why would so many support a war on an emotion but for their own emotions.

[Arugula Latte]

34. I know someone who I thought was rational and fairly liberal.

He was on NYC on 9-11 and after that would send out stupid e-mails railing against things like the U.N. A couple times I wrote back and said: "Don't you have anything better to criticize, like, oh, say the way Bush is using the Constitution to wipe his ass?" ... but a screw had come loose in his head. We don't have any contact these days.

[spanone]

4. sorry RIP

[NaturalHigh]

5. RIP Ron.

I really didn't follow his politics much, but I always enjoyed watching him.

[grantcart]

9. He was a long time liberal until 9/11 and then flipped to far right - very sad.

[Lex]

19. I don't even understand how that happens. A flip of principles & values

like that. But I'm sorry to see he died.

He was involved in raising money for Scooter Libby's defense fund, or so his wiki page says. That's just . . . weird.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Link of him on The West Wing ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCSMyFWTjRc

[bluestateguy]

7. Well, he was a fine actor

And he conducted himself with integrity in the profession.

His Bruno Gianelli character in the West Wing was outstanding.

It seems like he was even starting to come back to his senses in politics as he neared the end.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. May his family find peace

may he continue his journey in a good way.

[Cirque du So-What]

11. Condolences to friends and family

but I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out that when a person makes an ideological switch - such as Ron Silver did - it's always from the farthest reaches of left to right, or vice versa. You never hear of someone switching from center-right to center-left, for example. Perhaps the extremism is the most dominant characteristic of their ideology in the first place.

[dsc]

12. If you haven't watched Reversal of Fortune you should

it is an amazing film. Silver was a terrific actor but his political u turn at the end was disappointing.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

13. Wow, that was a shock

Didn't know he was sick. He was hosting a show on the sirius independant channel during the Election.

I didn't care for his rather smug attitude in defending Bush, but this is still sad.

[AlCzervik]

26. i saw him on Larry King's show about 2 months before the election and i knew

he was sick, he looked it and even though someone tried to cover it with makeup you just knew, i felt bad for him, cancer just sucks and i wouldn't wish on anyone.

Having said all that when Kissinger croaks i'll be all up in here with a thread in extremely poor taste.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

31. Tangerine loves you,

and wants to be your friend.

Will that Kissinger Death Celebration be a catered affair?

Or will be just have lots of drugs and boilermakers?

I'm good either way.

There will, though, be ticker tape, and HUGH applause, right?

[AlCzervik]

33. that's after we go to the funeral home with a stake just to make sure he's really in the box and

that he won't rise after sunset, i'm not taking any chances.

then we celebrate.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

35. I can work that one, easy

I not only have the outfits, I have the tools:



(You made me laugh, because, just yesterday, a friend and I drove past a funeral home, and I recounted for my friend going to a viewing there, of a man who'd been a pretty awful person, but he had been the dean of my undergraduate school, and later, a legal client of mine. His first wife, who I'd known when I was a student, showed up, which really surprised me, since we were in Virginia, and she lived in Chicago. I asked her if she and Norm had finally made some peace (after a really ugly divorce), and she said, "Let me show you why I flew out here."

We went down to the parking lot behind the funeral home, she opened the trunk of her rental car, and pulled out a revolver.

"I wanted to make sure the sonofabitch was dead," she said. "I think I'll shoot him anyway." She started to walk away, and I jumped her and talked her out of shooting her ex-husband's corpse.

So, that wooden stake thing will be all right. We got it (ahem) nailed. It should only happen this week............)

[City Lights]

16. RIP, Ron.

My condolences to your loved ones.

[petronius]

17. That's really too bad - I liked him as an actor

Politics aren't everything; this is a loss (as most deaths are...) :(

[NYCGirl]

18. Sorry to hear this. Silver was a very fine actor, and the Creative Coalition is

a great organization.

[AngryAmish]

23. Piss on him

[UTUSN]

25. I won't say it, but I'm with you!1 n/t

[AndrewP]

40. It's too bad he died. My best wishes to his family. I still think he was a douchebag.

[stray cat]

27. and his family, friends and any loved ones - piss on anyone who thinks differently than me

:sarcasm:

[UTUSN]

28. I guess that's what he said in life. n/t

[AnnieBW]

37. May He Rest in Peace

Regardless of his politics, nobody should have to die of cancer, especially at such a relatively young age.

[Bluenorthwest]

42. Politics aside for a moment

Ron Silver was one hell of an actor. Even after his thinking went to Fearland, his work was excellent and I could always enjoy his performances. Did not know he was ill. May his family find peace.

[meegbear]

43. Hear! Hear!