Today In Nerd History

Remembering Felix Silla, born January 11, 1937 and passed away April 16, 2021.

Felix Anthony Silla, also credited as Felix Cilla, was an Italian-born American movie and tv actor and stuntman, best known for his role as the costumed character of “Cousin Itt” on tv’s The Addams Family, with the voice usually provided by Anthony Magro (1923-2004).

He also appeared in many other classic character roles.

He was born in a small village outside Rome, Italy and trained as a circus performer, came to the United States in 1955, and toured with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His multiple talents as a bareback rider, trapeze artist and tumbler brought him to Hollywood, where he became a stuntman, starting with the Gig Young-Shirley Jones vehicle, A Ticklish Affair.

His also played Litvak, the maniacal, miniature Hitler who menaces George Segal in The Black Bird.

He was also responsible for the physical performance of the robot Twiki in the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a role for which the voice was supplied by Mel Blanc or Bob Elyea.

In part due to his short stature of 1.19 m (3 ft 11 in), he has often doubled for children in such movies as The Towering Inferno, The Hindenburg, and Battlestar Galactica.

Between movies, he frequently appears in Las Vegas and Reno night clubs with his own musical combo, “The Original Harmonica Band”.

He provided the voice of Mortimer Goth from The Sims 2, the best-selling video game of 2005.

He appeared as a Talosian in the Star Trek: The Original Series pilot “The Cage“. He did not receive credit for this role.

In addition to these roles, Felix was a regular performer on H.R. Pufnstuf, and appeared as Lucifer on the original Battlestar Galactica.

He also played an Ewok in the movie Return of the Jedi.

He was a stunt actor on 1992's Batman Returns, in which he played an emperor penguin, one of the Penguin’s “henchbirds”.

He was very nice when I got that picture with him at a convention.