Anecdotes

His Gladasya production company co-produced L'île aux naufragés (1964).

Later in life, after having cataract surgery on both eyes and with lenses then implanted in his eyes, he no longer needed eyeglasses. However, he continued to wear them without any glass in them--just the frames--because his glasses were, after all, his trademark.

He wrote the lyrics to the Jimmy Van Heusen song "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" for friend Frank Sinatra's firstborn child Nancy Sinatra.

He was a compulsive gambler. Once, when complaining about his lack of work and being broke in Los Angeles, he absent-mindedly pulled out a large wad of bills. When asked about why did not live on that money, he replied it did not count because it was only his gambling money.

Has won two Tony Awards as Best Actor (Musical): in 1952 for "Top Banana", a role that he recreated in the film version of the same name, Top Banana (1954), and in 1972 for a revival of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". He was also nominated in the same category in 1961 for "Do Re Mi".

He suffered from chronic depression and a nervous breakdown in 1962. He also suffered a stroke in 1972 and was left with slurred speech.

Appears as Master Sergeant Ernest G. (Ernie) Bilko on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp, issued 11 August 2009, in the Early TV Memories issue honoring The Phil Silvers Show (1955).

Discovered by impresario Gus Edwards and hired to perform as a singer, in vaudeville, at age 13. Three years later he appeared as a comedian in burlesque shows, often with his long-standing partner and friend Herbie Faye. He made his Broadway debut in the musical "Yokel Boy" in 1939.

Daughter Tracey Silvers is a film producer and writer.

His eyesight was so bad that he developed a fear of falling into the orchestra pit when he was on stage. In 1962, he turned down the leading role of Pseudolus in the original stage production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in part for this reason (he also thought the role was too much like "Sgt. Bilko in a toga"). The role eventually went to Zero Mostel. Silvers played the role of Marcus Lycus in the 1966 film version. In 1972, he played Pseudolus in the Broadway revival, which closed early after he suffered a stroke. The performance won him his second Tony Award. Debbie Reynolds also mentioned this fear, during a 2013 interview on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005). She said that in the early 1950s, she and Silvers were part of the last vaudeville touring company, before the theatre circuit closed. She said that he used to tie a rope around his waist with the other end tied to a piano leg, so he would not fall into the orchestra pit.

He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6370 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on November 1, 2000.

Delivered the eulogy at fellow comedian Rags Ragland's funeral.

His first wife, Jo-Carroll Dennison, was Miss America of 1942.

Enjoyed a long string of Broadway successes, most notably "High Button Shoes" (1948), "Top Banana" (1951, for which he won a Tony Award), "Do-Re-Mi" (1961), "How the Other Half Loves" (1970), and the revival of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1971, and another Tony Award).

Following his death, he was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

His second wife filed for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty in 1966.

Silvers' sight was failing fast, and to compensate for this fact he was wearing contact lenses as well as glasses. It was a familiar sight to see Jim Dale, Peter Butterworth, and Silvers scatting around the sand for a lost lens while filming Follow That Camel (1967).

When he made the British comedy film Carry on Follow That Camel he was paid £ 30,000 making him the highest paid star in the series.

Father-in-law of writer/director/composer Iren Koster.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 740-741. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1998).