Ron Silver, RIP

I was just checking the headlines and was surprised to see that Ron Silver died yesterday at age 62. Apparently he had been battling esophageal cancer for some time.

You may not recognize his name, but you would probably recognize his face. He was an excellent actor whose movies included “Silkwood” and “Reversal of Fortune” and television shows included “The West Wing” and “Crossing Jordan.” On stage, he won a Tony Award in 1988 for “Speed the Plow.”

I have liked what I’ve seen of his work over the years but I am not going to go into his specific acting abilities, place in acting history, etc…because, well, I’m not really into any of that.

What I will say is that for some time I have admired Mr. Silver’s authenticity, for lack of a better term, when it comes to political matters. He started off as a conventional Hollywood liberal, working on projects with the likes of Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon, so it’s obvious that he and I haven’t always been on the same side of the issues. However, on matters of national defense and the intrinsic goodness of American ideals, Mr. Silver was unquestionably conservative, at least after 9/11. He did away with his Democrat voter registration, re-registered as an independent, and began calling himself a “9/11 Republican.” He even spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

And on those policies about which his opinions diverged from mine, I have no doubt that he sincerely believed those policies would benefit others. Unlike the vitriol-spewing members of the Hollywood Left who always seem to be involved in causes for the sake of puffing up their own image, Mr. Silver was in them for the right reasons and he never sought the spotlight. His example will be missed.