Geno Silva is dead.
According to THR, this was confirmed by family who said that the character actor best known for playing The Skull, the hitman who takes out Al Pacino’s Tony Montana in the climax of Scarface, died May 9 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia.
Geno’s character never speaks a word in Scarface while he guns down Montana with a shotgun from behind at the end of the Brian De Palma-directed classic. One poll placed The Skull No. 7 on a list of the best henchmen in movie history.
A little more about him:
During his four-decade career, Silva also could be seen in Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit (1981) — he was in the 1979 Broadway production opposite Edward James Olmos — Robert Towne’s Tequila Sunrise (1988); Steven Spielberg’s Amistad and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, both released in 1997; David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001); and F. Gary Gray’s A Man Apart (2003).
On television, he was a regular on the 1993 Fox drama Key West and appeared on episodes of Hill Street Blues; Miami Vice; Walker, Texas Ranger; Star Trek: Enterprise; and Alias.
He was 72.
