McKnight's Memory audio-book is FREE on YouTube. Link at the bottom of this page.

Henry Silva did a spectacular karate fight with Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate, helped Sinatra rob casinos in Oceans 11, and fought Sinatra as a renegade Indian in Sergeants 3. Ten years ago, he joined Frank Sinatra Jr and 9 other stars to perform in my audio production of McKnight's Memory. 
 
I wanted Henry to play the part of gangster who plays a dangerous game of poker with Robert Culp. Because Henry made a lot of movies in Europe, I figured it was a long shot to find him. But he was in Hollywood so I sent him the script.
 
Henry liked the story, so he joined the cast. We recorded the long card-playing scene between Robert Culp in one long take. Henry is fluent in Italian, so he sprinkled his performance with it, making his role more authentic. 
 
Listening to the playback with Henry, I heard him deliver one of the lines strongly and uniquely. The words came flying out of my mouth, "That's classic Silva." Henry looked at me with a big smile. 
 
A few months after doing McKnight's Memory, I called Henry back to the studio to work on Edd Byrnes' audio-book, My Casino Caper.  They were close friends and had co-starred in the Roger Corman film; The Secret Invasion. 
 
Twenty years earlier Henry had helped Edd get out of a tight spot when Edd was stalked for his 3-million-dollar jackpot win in Las Vegas. So, Henry played himself to re-create scenes that happened in the past. 
 
It was great fun to have Edd, Henry, Alan Young, David Hedison and Michael Callan in the same recording studio together. There were a lot of laughs during rehearsals. During the session Henry said, "This is the most fun I've had in weeks."

Driving Henry back to his home, my agent handed me a CD from the back seat and said, "Play cut number 4." I put the CD in the player, punched number four, and soon Sammy Davis Jr starts singing the title song to Oceans 11, that Henry had co-starred in. We all drove in silence and then in the middle of the song Henry said, "This is so great." After the song finished, Henry told us this story:
 
"In the '60s, before I had ever met Frank, I was driving down Sunset Boulevard with a date and this car pulls up to me and the guy motions to me to roll down my window, so I do.  The guy sticks his head out of the window and my date says, 'Oh my God. It's Frank Sinatra.' And Frank yells, 'Hey kid, I like your acting. We're going to work together.' Soon after that I got a call to work on Oceans 11.  And then we did three more movies together."
 
A few months later, my dad and I met with Henry and Edd for lunch. It was a memorable experience, especially with my dad there.

Henry is still with us. He's played138 parts, mostly in movies. He told me that his favorite part was the crazy killer in the Burt Reynold's movie Sharky's Machine. He said he came up with the idea of yelling before firing his pistol.