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Phil Silvers (May 11, 1911 – November 1,
1985) was an American entertainer and comedy
actor.

His best-known work is The Phil Silvers Show, a
1950s sitcom set on a United States Army|US Army
post in which he played Sergeant Bilko; the show
was also often referred to by this name. He won a
Tony Award for Top Banana in 1952 (it was turned
into a film in 1954).

Born Philip Silversmith in Brooklyn, New York,
Silvers was the youngest of eight children. His
father, a Russian Jewish immigrant, was one of the
workers on the early New York skyscrapers. Silvers
started entertaining at age 11, when he would sing
in theaters when the projector broke down (a
common occurrence in those days). Two years later,
he left school to sing professionally, before
appearing in vaudeville as a stooge.

Silvers then landed work in short films and on
Broadway, where he made his debut in the
short-lived show Yokel Boy. The critics raved
about Silvers, who was hailed as the bright spot
in the mediocre play. He then wrote the revue High
Kickers, until he went to Hollywood to star in
films. He made his film debut in Hit Parade of
1941 (1940) (his previous appearance as a pitch
man in Strike Up the Band was cut). Over the next
two decades, he appeared in character roles for
MGM, Columbia Pictures|Columbia, and 20th Century
Fox, in such films as Lady Be Good, Coney Island,
Cover Girl, and Summer Stock. When the studio
system started collapsing, he then turned to
television and more stardom in the role of Sgt.
Ernie Bilko.

Throughout the 1960's, he appeared in films such
as It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and A Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum. He also guested
on various variety shows such as The Carol Burnett
Show, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and The Dean
Martin Show.

He famously starred as a guest in one of the famed
United Kingdom|British Carry On films, Follow That
Camel (1967), as a Sergeant Bilko character in a
spoof of the Foreign Legion films. Peter Rogers
employed him to ensure the Carry On films' success
in United States|America. His salary was £30,000,
the largest Carry On films|Carry On salary ever,
only later met by the appearance of Elke Sommer in
Carry On Behind (1975). Despite his appearance in
the film, he didn't ensure the film's success on
either side of the Atlantic. 

Famed voice actor Daws Butler employed an
impressionist (entertainment)|impression of
Silvers as the voice of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon
character Hokey Wolf and also used the same voice
in numerous cartoons for Jay Ward. Furthermore,
the premise of The Phil Silvers Show was the basis
for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Top Cat.

Silvers was very ill in the last few years of his
life, even though he continued work into the early
1980s in film and TV. He died in 1985 of a heart
attack. 

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he
was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by
fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

==Filmography==
*Ups and Downs (1937) (short subject)
*Here's Your Hat (1937) (short subject)
*The Candid Kid (1938) (short subject)
*Strike Up the Band (1940) (scenes deleted)
*Hit Parade of 1941 (1940)
*The Wild Man of Borneo (1941)
*The Penalty (1941) 
*Tom Dick and Harry (1941)
*Ice-Capades (1941)
*Lady Be Good (1941)
*You're in the Army Now (1941)
*All Through the Night (1942)
*Roxie Hart (1942)
*My Gal Sal (1942)
*Footlight Serenade (1942)
*Tales of Manhattan (1942) (scenes deleted)
*Just Off Broadway (1942)
*Coney Island (1943)
*A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)
*Four Jills in a Jeep (1944)
*Cover Girl (1944)
*Take It or Leave It (1944)
*Something for the Boys (1944)
*Diamond Horseshoe (1945)
*Don Juan Quilligan (1945)
*A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
*If I'm Lucky (1946)
*Summer Stock (1950)
*Top Banana (1954)
*Lucky Me (1954)
*Something's Got to Give (1962) (unfinished)
*40 Pounds of Trouble (1962)
*It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
*A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
(1966)

==External links==
*http://www.carryonline.com/carry/silvers.html
Brief biography
*http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0799014/ Internet
Movie Database