Frank Silvera

Biography: After making his career as a stage actor, he began appearing onscreen in the early '50s, when he was in his late 30s. A light-skinned black man, he almost always played Spaniards or Mexicans, but was also cast as American Indians and Asians; he was often in the role of a heavy. He played the lead in two early Stanley Kubrick films, Fear and Desire (1953) and Killer's Kiss (1955). He costarred in the TV series The High Chaparral. He died in an accident at 56, when he was electrocuted by a home appliance.