Felix Silla Has Covered A Lot Of Ground!

Felix Silla is classic television actor with a wealth of roles to his credit, spanning several decades. In many of his roles, you never even saw his face: Cousin Itt of "The Addams Family," Twiki on "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," the alien visitor on an episode of "The Dukes of Hazzard," a Talosian on the classic "Star Trek" episode "The Cage," a child gorilla on 1968's "Planet of the Apes," even the polka-dotted horse in 1969's "H.R. Pufnstuf"! It's crazy, wonderful stuff for a classic TV fan.

I got a chance to chat with Silla a bit over this past weekend, from the next table over at a charity benefit event in Leamington, Ontario, Canada. It was the sixth year for the event, called the Hair Dare Dukes Weekend and celebrating "The Dukes of Hazzard" for a cancer-fighting cause, and it was Silla's first appearance at the event. He had appeared at the Motor City Comic Con in May, where he connected with Hair Dare event organizer Paul Harrington.

Born in Rome, Silla lives in Las Vegas these days, he told me. I have to admit, if I had any idea just how extensive his career has been, I would've asked him more questions! "Bonanza," "The Monkees," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Bewitched," "Battlestar Galactica," and a fab cult 1973 movie called "Sssssss," where he portrayed a "seal boy." Yowza. He's even done a ton of stunt work. Silla brought a load of great photos to sign from a variety of his roles.

Silla poses outside the host hotel, the Comfort Inn of Leamington on Friday evening.

Here, Silla gets set up at the dinner with the stars on Friday night, joined by "Dukes" stars Don Pedro Colley ("Sheriff Little"), left, and Byron Cherry ("Coy Duke").

Silla brought his own camera to the show to get some good shots. He's shown here with Billy Stephenson, a Tennessee-based singer who performed at the show, on Saturday morning before the parade got underway.

Silla's table display included an original call sheet from his episode of "The Dukes," which was called "Strange Visitor to Hazzard" and was at the tail-end of the show's run. In the episode he plays an alien visitor who hides out in the back of the General Lee as the three Duke cousins are out crabapple-picking in Skunk Hollow (believe it!). The threesome fondly call him "Little Cousin" and take him back to the Duke farm.

Silla said it took four days to shoot the episode, and it was a chilly December. The date on the call sheet is December 7, 1984. The episode aired on January 25, 1985. Silla reminisced with me about that tannish alien getup he had to wear, which included some careful matching makeup around his eyes.

I asked if he's still got a lot of these kind of call sheets from "The Addams Family." No, actually, he doesn't, though he does have quite a few from "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi," where he was an Ewok.

Silla remains in contact with his "Addams Family" co-stars. "There are only four of us left," he pointed out, himself, John Astin, "and the two kids," Lisa Loring and Ken Weatherwax.

You can learn more about Silla, and even purchase his photos, at his official website.

Photos by Billie Rae Bates / BRBTV

Copying with credit is OK; a link would be grand
More event photos can always be found in BRB's Yahoo group