Posted on 04/16/2021 8:03:17 PM PDT by lowbridge
Felix Silla, who worked inside a body-length hairpiece, behind a pair of sunglasses and underneath a bowler hat in his guise as the mumbling Cousin Itt on the 1960s ABC comedy The Addams Family, has died. He was 84.
Silla, a longtime Las Vegas resident, died Friday after a battle with pancreatic cancer, his friend Gil Gerard, his co-star on the 1979-81 NBC series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, reported on Twitter.
Silla's face went unseen on The Addams Family, as the robot sidekick Twiki on Buck Rogers and when he was a hang-gliding Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi (1983).
And in a notable role where he could actually be recognized, the Italian actor and stuntman shaved his head to portray the maniacal villain Litvak opposite George Segal as Sam Spade Jr. in The Maltese Falcon sequel The Black Bird (1975).
A hair under 4 feet tall and weighing 70 pounds, Silla showed up for the first time on The Addams Family in 1965 in the series' 20th episode when a zookeeper mistakes Cousin Itt for an exotic animal and wants to put him in a cage.
(The character was the idea of a producer and was not in the Charles Addams' cartoons on which the series was based, and Cousin Itt's voice on the show was provided by sound engineer Tony Magro in postproduction.)
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
Twiki
Twiki’s voice was provided by Mel Blanc.
Buck Rogers TV series is on ME TV
Saturday Night 11pm
He stayed active in show business for a long time.
He must have enjoyed that lifestyle.
If lucky, he may have still be collecting royalties from The Addams Family. I’m sure it’s still running somewhere on cable.
Christopher Hart (Thing) seems to still be alive.
He was the Talosian in the pilot of Star Trek.
He was Twiki in Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century.
-PJ
He could have been the star in “The Robert Reich Story,” if they were to film it. R.I.P. Cousin Itt was a great fun character.
R.I.P
Loved The Adams Family. My daughter calls her new Shark vacuum Lurch (the butler).
Twiki was kind of a digital Yosemite Sam.
This guy was a faceless actor for the ages. I can respect him because he never lied to me with his words, played entirely fictional characters and kept his private life to himself. I have a weird fluctuating bar for actors.
Bwaaaaahhh
Filmed in...
Objects on the screen are larger than they appear.
-PJ
It’s on Pluto 24/7.
Rest in peace, Felix.
You gave us many a laugh.
I thought he was just named the HHS secretary
If you slow Cousin Itt’s voice way down, it sounds like Biden.
John Astin is still kicking, thank God.
Kinda creepy and spooky...
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