Ron Silver

Looking at the IMDb filmography of character actor Ron Silver, who passed away over the weekend, I realize that I have seen criminally few of his performances. I first became aware of him as the villain in Timecop. It may not be a good movie, but Silver brought something to the character that made him truly dangerous: lethal intelligence. Unlike many other cut-rate villains, Senator Aaron McComb actually did seem to be the smartest guy in the film. Silver's cold, wry heavy made that film more memorable than it had any right to be.
Ron Silver brought this vibrant intelligence to his portrayal of Alan Dershowitz in Reversal of Fortune. Jeremy Irons may have won the Oscar, but Silver had a lot of heavy lifting to do. In a story of wealthy socialites and high society, the audience desperately needs a point of entry. That was Silver, whose views of these strange people mirrored our own. And yet we still see that brilliance coming through. Silver plays Dershowitz as a man who catches things that others miss. Hell, the very fact that he found something in the seemingly black-and-white Von Bulow case that seemed shady was a testament to his ability to look closer. It would be easy to play that type of character as enigmatic and arrogant. Silver clearly sees Dershowitz as a poor kid from Brooklyn with a brilliant legal mind that, yes, has brought him a lot of money, but never really changed his outlook.
Of his recent roles, I will only mention a couple. His performance as the judge in Sidney Lumet's little-seen Find Me Guilty is, at times, very funny. In a case this strange, with a gangster acting as his own attorney, and a long-winded, self-righteous prosecutor, Silver decides to just sit back and let himself be entertained. And, yet, he shows tremendous sensitivity as he informs our protagonist that his mother has died. Silver turns a seemingly one-note cameo into a full-blown three-dimensional supporting character.
Most recently, I saw Silver as political operator Bruno Gianelli in "The West Wing." As we see him orchestrate two different Presidential campaigns, we get the strong feeling that he could quite possibly be the smartest guy in the room. Played with a perpetual smirk, Bruno is a mystery. Why does he do this? He has worked for both Democrats and Republicans, with no real leaning either way. Does he do it for the money? Or does he just enjoy being a part of the game? In a show filled with fascinating supporting characters, Bruno manages to stand out in our minds. The reason (aside from some solid writing) is Ron Silver's commitment to playing him as a man without ideals. To him, it's about winning and losing, and nobody knows just how he picked his current side.
Ron Silver was everything a supporting actor is supposed to be. He took characters that, on the page, seemed pretty by-the-numbers and turned them into something memorable, all without stealing focus from the story being told. It was a pleasure to watch him act. He will be missed.