Actor Ron Silver dies in NYC at age 62 of cancer

Actor Ron Silver, who won a Tony Award as a take-no-prisoners Hollywood producer in David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" and did a political about-face from loyal Democrat to Republican activist after the Sept. 11 attacks, died Sunday at the age of 62.

"Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him early Sunday morning" in New York City, said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped found. "He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years."

"My only guess is why his brother would comment like that would be to try and lessen leftist spewing on his memory. Won't work."

That's a possibility. It is a quote taken out of the context of an interview with the brother, Mitchell. But, to me, reading the quote sounds more like he is trying to distance himself and the family from Ron's political beliefs. And, he is using the means of the publicity from his brother's death to inform his fellow leftists that he and the family weren't influenced, but were 'confounded' by Ron's political beliefs. Then he adds that Ron told him that he had voted for Obama:

“Ron’s politics, as far as I know, were not shared by anyone he knew, except for the people he knew because of his politics,” Mitchell Silver said. He paused and added: “He told me that he did vote for Barack Obama in the end”

Guess I've become cynical about leftists, and never more so than now. I thought it was more about the image brother Mitchell wanted to present of himself and the family, than protecting Ron's memory. Since Ron spoke quite boldly and eloquently for himself while he was alive, it's interesting that he didn't voice his support of Obama publicly.

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