REST IN PEACE

Felix Silla, ‘Addams Family’ and ‘Star Wars’ Actor, Dead at 84

During his decades-long career, Silla played Cousin Itt on our creepiest and kookiest sitcom, and an Ewok in “Star Wars”—before also joining Mel Brooks’ spoof, “Spaceballs.”

Felix Silla, the actor best known for playing Cousin Itt on The Addams Family, has died of cancer at the age of 84, the Associated Press reports. Silla was born in Abruzzo, Italy, the AP reports, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1955. Before he began working in Hollywood, both as an actor and stuntman, Silla toured as a bareback rider, trapeze artist, and tumbler with both the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The actor, who stood less than four feet tall, brought to life not only the most hirsute member of the creepy, kooky sitcom family, but also went on to play an Ewok in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. (Specifically, the AP reports the actor played the Ewok who rides in on a hang glider.) In an amusing twist, Silla also appeared in Mel Brooks’ spoof of the franchise, Spaceballs. (He played a Dink, the film’s parody of Jawas.)