Felix Silla

Felix Silla was an Italian-born actor and stuntman.

He was perhaps most widely known for his role as the long-maned Cousin Itt on the 1960s television series The Addams Family and as the hang-gliding Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983).

Silla first came to the United States in the 1950s and began touring as a trapeze artist and tumbler with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

He landed his first television role in the series Grindl and would go on to have recurring roles in H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century while guest starring in Bonanza, Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, Night Gallery, Mork & Mindy, The Dukes of Hazzard, Married…with Children, and Star Trek: The Original Series.

On the big screen, Silla appeared in Planet of the Apes (1968), The Black Bird (1975), The Demon Seed (1977), The Brood (1979), The Sting II (1983), Spaceballs (1987), and Batman Returns (1992).

He was also a skilled stuntman, contributing to a number of films including A Ticklish Affair (1963), The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), Earthquake (1974), The Towering Inferno (1974), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), The Monster Squad (1987), and Phantasm II (1988).

Silla died April 16, 2021, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was 84.