American actor Henry Silva has died at the age of 95, his son has confirmed.

Silva is best known for playing villains and tough guys in The Manchurian Candidate, Ocean’s Eleven and other films.

Scott Silva, Henry’s son, told Variety that his father died of natural causes on Wednesday at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

The New York City native dropped out of school as a teenager in the 1940s and in the next decade he was accepted into the Actors Studio where Shelley Winters and Ben Gazzara were also students.

Bracknell News: Henry Silva (Alamy)Henry Silva (Alamy) (Image: Alamy)

He retired from acting in 2001 after a long and busy career in film and television that earned him hundreds of credits.

A breakthrough role on stage and screen came up for Silva in the 1950s as a drug dealer in A Hatful Of Rain and supporting parts in two of Frank Sinatra’s best known movies, both from the early 1960s: Ocean’s Eleven, the Las Vegas heist film that was a showcase for Sinatra, Dean Martin and other “Rat Pack” members; and The Manchurian Candidate, the Cold War thriller about brainwashing and the assassination of the president that starred Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh.

“Our hearts are broken at the loss of our dear friend Henry Silva, one of the nicest, kindest and most talented men I’ve had the pleasure of calling my friend,” Dean Martin’s daughter, Deana Martin, tweeted this week.

“He was the last surviving star of the original Oceans 11 Movie.”

You might also recognise Silva from television series such as Wagon Train and The FBI.

He also played parts in films such as Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy, Jerry Lewis’ Cinderfella and Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai which saw him play a mobster in the 1999 release directed by one of his admirers, Jim Jarmusch.