Biography

He taught Spanish for several years in the 1960s at The Roosevelt School, a Jewish boarding school in Shippan Point, Stamford, Connecticut. Because of his knowledge of Chinese, he got a job with the US Government and traveled to Taiwan in the early 1970s.

Was once a social worker as well as a high school teacher.

He was survived by both of his parents, Irving and May Silver.

Was exempt from the draft during the Vietnam War era. He traveled to Vietnam, however, as well as Cambodia, India, Japan and the Soviet Union in the late 1960s.

He had a son, Adam (born in 1979), and a daughter, Alexandra (born in 1983), with his ex-wife Lynne Miller.

By inclination I am more of a politician than I am an actor. I care more about public policy. I care more about pro-choice, the environment, homelessness, and nuclear issues than I do about any part.

[on actors getting involved in politics] I think there's almost an obligation. Many of us are very well compensated for work which a lot of people would love to do. And we also have a lot of leisure time in between jobs... They say that Hollywood is sex without substance, and Washington is substance without sex, so maybe the marriage of the two is mutually intriguing.

[on his support for George W. Bush] It's affected me very badly. I can't point to a person or a job I've lost, but this community is not very pluralistic. I haven't worked for 10 months.

Often when I walked onto the set of The West Wing (1999) some of my colleagues would greet me with a chanting of "Ron, Ron, the neo-con." It was all done in fun but it had an edge.

There have been a few occasions when people have said, 'I won't work with that S.O.B.' It has happened, but on an individual basis. It is not in any way, shape or form a blacklist.