Ron Silver, Actor and Political Activist Passes Away at 62

The New York Post has reported that stage and screen actor and longtime political activist Ron Silver died this morning, ending a long battle with cancer, friends of the liberal Democrat-turned-GOP stalwart told The Post.

"Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning," said Robin Bronk in a statement, Bronk is executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create. To read the full New York Post story on Silver's passing click here.

Silver won a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for starring in David Mamet's original Broadway production of Speed-The-Plow.

He was seen in many films and television shows, a true "actor's actor" Silver studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Actors Studio. 

Silver made his film debut in Tunnel Vision in 1976. Additional screen roles included Lovesick (1983), the devoted son of Anne Bancroft in Garbo Talks (1984), an incompetent detective in Eat and Run (1986), and the lead in Paul Mazursky's Oscar-nominated Enemies: A Love Story (1989). He also portrayed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz in Reversal of Fortune (1990), based on the trial of Claus von Bülow. From 2001 to 2002 and 2005 to 2006, Silver portrayed presidential campaign advisor Bruno Gianelli on The West Wing.

From 1991 to 2000, Silver served as president of the Actors' Equity Association.