From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary… John Fund remembers actor Ron Silver, who passed away yesterday… (We added the photo…)
Actor and liberal-turned-conservative activist Ron Silver knew how to live — and also how to deal courageously with the cancer that claimed his life yesterday at age 62.
When I last saw him at a lunch in New York a few months ago, I asked him how his health was. "Not good," he replied philosophically. "I’m probably not going to make it, but I’ll go down fighting."
Not much you can say to that, except to express sympathy and hope. You had to admire how Ron handled his illness. Until last week, he was still doing a Sirius radio talk show once a week. Last year, he covered both political conventions for Sirius despite his weakened condition.
Two decades ago, Mr. Silver was a founding member of the Creative Coalition, a group of artists who believed that politics and government were too important to be ignored by artists and actors. He was a liberal for many years until 9/11 prompted him to rethink his politics. In 2004, he spoke at the Republican National Convention in New York, telling delegates: "Twelve years ago I was here for the Democratic convention. I was on the platform committee. . . . If you asked me on September 10, 2001, would I consider going to the Republican National Convention and speaking, I would have thought you were from another planet and didn’t know who I was."
On television, Mr. Silver was best known for his work on "The West Wing," where for five years he played political consultant Bruno Gianelli, an adviser to fictional Democratic President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet. In the show’s final season, art imitated life as the Gianelli character switched sides and went to work for a Republican presidential candidate.
Ron Silver was not only a gifted actor but a brave man, who admitted that he lost jobs in Hollywood after becoming a conservative. But he told me that many Americans had given up far more to stand up for what they believed in, and he had no regrets. He will be missed.
— John Fund
March 16th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Perhaps Mr. Silver’s Finest Hour was his emotional speech to the 2004 Republican Convention, where he was a surprise Smash Hit with the GOP Delegates. Even the LA Times was impressed, as their story the next day (Aug. 31, 2004) made clear:
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“Actor Ron Silver had the Madison Square Garden audience whooping and on its feet Monday night as he delivered a speech that marked the latest chapter in his unlikely political evolution — and the distance he has traveled from the Hollywood mainstream.
“Even though I’m a well-recognized liberal on many issues confronting our society today,” Silver told delegates to the Republican National Convention, “I find it ironic that many human rights activists and outspoken members of my own entertainment community are often on the front lines to protest re- pression, for which I applaud them, but they’re usually the first ones to oppose any use of force to take care of these horrors that they catalog repeatedly.”
Silver’s speech was a brief but ringing defense of President Bush’s response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 . “The president is doing exactly the right thing ! ” thundered Silver.”
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These were lines worthy of a George Orwell or Whittaker Chambers, as Silver measured the enormous Gap betweeen Liberal empathy, and Liberal actions. If you heard that speech, you will never forget it.
Bravo, Mr. Silver ! May God richly bless you.