This gentleman, Howard da Silva, was a Broadway-trained actor before he sallied forth into Hollywood films.

His real name was Harold Silverblatt and, though his Hollywood career was short (some 50 films), he was as good a supporting actor as any in the Thirties and Forties.

He was fired while making Slaughter Trail (1951), yet another victim of the McCarthy witch-hunts. He appeared only rarely after that. Playing one type of villain or another, he is etched upon my memory limping up to a swimming pool while playing a manservant-cum-gardener and shooting Alan Ladd in The Great Gatsby (1949). Uniquely, da Silva appeared in the 1974 remake of Gatsby.

Moving away from villainy for once he was, as it were, mentioned in despatches for his role as a caring barkeeper in The Lost Weekend (1945), a film in which Ray Milland won an Academy Award as an alcoholic, playing opposite Jane Wyman.

Incidentally, if you want to see a remarkable look-alike of da Silva, go to Plumbwell in Trafalgar Street, Brighton, and look at the proprietor of the shop.

-Gordon Dean, St Lukes Road, Brighton