She was born in 1922, and a dozen or so years later she almost died. At the last minute, her name disappeared from the passenger list of the British steamship SS Athenia, which Great Britain wanted to evacuate some people to Canada on after declaring war on the Third Reich. There were 1,417 people on board (including 1,102 passengers and 315 crew members). The captain of the German submarine U-30 decided that it was not a passenger ship, but a British auxiliary cruiser and gave the order to attack. One of the two torpedoes fired hit the hold. The rescue operation by Swedish, American and Norwegian units that responded to the SOS signal lasted all night, and later others joined. 118 people died, the steamer sank.
She got married at 19. She got divorced seven years later.
Silvera, who had found her way to Canada in a different way, trained in dance against her father’s wishes and even performed several times with the Russian ballet, then considered one of the best in the world. After returning to the UK, she stood up to her father once again, because she was increasingly drawn to acting. In high school, she was captain of the hockey team, but even then she was active in theatre. “I did a play when the leading lady got tonsillitis and couldn’t perform. I found out six hours beforehand, but I learned the part and got a special commendation for it. I was very proud of myself – at a class reunion in 2001.” That’s why she decided to study at the London Academy of Music and Arts.
Before she turned twenty, while working on a play, she met stage actor John Cunlife. They quickly began trying to have a child, unfortunately without success for a long time. When, after seven years, the actress managed to get pregnant, she and her husband were very happy. Unfortunately, she soon had a miscarriage. This event was to have a significant impact on their relationship, the couple divorced after a few years – the actress was then 26. Silvera never married again.
She devoted herself to her career and played almost until the end of her life. She made her television debut quite late, in 1962, in the police drama “Z-Cars”. On the small screen, she played in the cult production “Doctor Who”. However, in the minds of fans around the world, she was primarily known as the wife of a restaurateur in a sitcom filmed in the 1980s. Edith Artois played from 1982 to 1992 – in the year of the premiere she celebrated her 60th birthday. The performances of Rene’s wife, mutilating subsequent notes, constantly aroused laughter from the audience.
Absent-minded, clumsy, charming. That’s how Gordon Kaye remembered Carmen Silvera from “‘Allo, ‘Allo!”
– Carmen was a charming woman. She was absent-minded – she always left her glasses everywhere, she was clumsy – you had to be careful not to sit next to her during an elegant dinner, she was funny and had a twisted sense of humor – her husband in the series, actor Gorden Kaye, killed her right after his death. Her extravagance was manifested, among other things, in the fact that she often… changed her age. She was so successful in this that when the media reported her diagnosis in 2002 – she had lung cancer – one of the newspapers said that the actress was 72, when she was 79. The vigour that she presented in life and on stage made this “younger version” credible – in “‘Allo, Allo!” she successfully played the daughter of Rose Hill, in reality only eight years older than Silvera.
She was always very active, both professionally and in charity. In her free time she liked to play poker, travel, watch athletics, golf and tennis. She painted or followed horse racing, which she got interested in from her grandfather when she was a child – again against the will of her father, who thought that such a passion was not appropriate for a girl. She liked to spend her time reading, cooking or watching nature programmes on TV.
She and Gordon Kaye last saw each other a few days before her death. The actor later decided to give the crematorium a rose tree in her honor. Carmen Silvera died at a retirement home for actors at the age of 80, just four months after her diagnosis.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
