Personal Life
Phil Silvers was married twice, to Evelyn Patrick and to Jo-Carroll Dennison. Both of his marriages ended in divorce. He had five daughters — Candace, Cathy, Laurie, Nancey, and Tracey Edythe — all by his second wife.
Silvers was a compulsive gambler and suffered from depression on and off over the years. He suffered a severe mental breakdown while performing in Spain in 1962. While staying in Reno, Nevada, in the 1950s, he would often gamble all night. On one occasion, at the tiny Cal-Neva Lodge in nearby Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Silvers spent an entire night playing craps until he lost all his money, and then went through $1,000 in credit. A taxi was called to return him to Reno. It was "ne of the worst nights of my life', Silvers told the driver, adding, "Don't wait for any lights and don't wait for any tip . . . I left it at the Cal-Neva!"
His memoirs are titled This Laugh Is On Me.
Read more about this topic: Phil Silvers
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. Nothing adds such dignity to character as the recognition of one’s self-sovereignty; the right to an equal place, everywhere conceded—a place earned by personal merit, not an artificial attainment by inheritance, wealth, family and position.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Parents vary in their sense of what would be suitable repayment for creating, sustaining, and tolerating you all those years, and what circumstances would be drastic enough for presenting the voucher. Obviously there is no repayment that would be sufficient . . . but the effort to call in the debt of life is too outrageous to be treated as anything other than a joke.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)