Felix Silla - Biography

Felix Silla was born on January 11, 1937 in a small village outside Rome, Italy. Silla trained as a circus performer, came to the United States in 1955, and toured with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Show. His multiple talents -- as a bareback rider, trapeze artist and tumbler -- brought him to Hollywood where he became a stuntman, starting with the Gig Young-Shirley Jones vehicle, Les astuces de la veuve (1963). His best-known roles are the maniacal, miniature "Hitler" who menaces George Segal in The Black Bird (1975) and "Cousin Itt" on the long-running TV series, La famille Addams (1964). He had doubled--often for children--in such hits as La tour infernale (1974), L'odyssée du Hindenburg (1975) and Galactica (1978). Between movies, he frequently appears in Las Vegas and Reno night clubs with his own musical combo, "The Original Harmonica Band". Silla and wife Sue Silla -- a "little person", like himself -- have been married since 1965 and have two children, Bonnie and Michael.