Felix Silla

Felix Silla was born in the small village of Roccacasale, Abruzzo, Italy. He trained as a circus performer and came to the United States aged 18, in 1955, touring with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His multiple talents as a bareback horse rider, trapeze artist, and tumbler brought him to Hollywood, where he became a stuntman, appearing in the film, A Ticklish Affair.

His best-known roles include Litvak, the maniacal, miniature Hitler who menaces George Segal in film The Black Bird (his favorite role). He was also responsible for the physical performance of the robot Twiki in the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,[3] a role for which the voice was supplied by Mel Blanc or Bob Elyea.

In part due to his short stature of 1.19 m (3 ft 11 in), he often doubled for children in such movies as The Towering Inferno, The Hindenburg, and Battlestar Galactica as well as Meatballs 2 as the alien. Between movies, he frequently appeared in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, night clubs with his own musical combo, The Original Harmonica Band.[4]

Silla provided the voice for the video game The Sims 2 as Mortimer Goth 2005.

Silla became famous however as the recurring costumed character of Cousin Itt on television's The Addams Family. The character was not part of Charles Addams's original comic, but was introduced in the original black and white television series by producer David Levy, debuting in the 1965 first-season episode "Cousin Itt Visits the Addams Family", and appearing in a total of 19 episodes, 17 which feature Silla and 2 with Roger Arroyo over the course of the show's two seasons. The character's voice was usually provided by studio sound engineer Anthony Magro (1923–2004). The character became so popular it was carried over to subsequent licensed media including film, stage and video games.

He played one of the hang glider Ewoks in the film Star Wars Return of the Jedi in 1983.[5]

He also appears to have done quite a bit of work with Glen A. Larson as he was the body actor for the robot Twiki in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as well as Lucifer in "Battlestar Galactica."