Geno Silva, the 'Scarface' assassin who killed Tony Montana, dies at 72

Geno Silva, the character actor best known as playing the sunglass-wearing assassin who finished off Al Pacino's Tony Montana in "Scarface," has died at 72.

His family wrote in a Legacy obituary that Silva died peacefully in his Los Angeles home May 9 of complications from frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia with which he had been afflicted for 15 years.

Silva had a four-decade career in film,TV and stage appearing in more than 100 projects. His screen credits include 1988's "Tequila Sunrise," Steven Spielberg's "Amistad" and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," David Lynch's 2001 "Mulholland Drive" and he starred alongside Vin Diesel in F. Gary Gray's 2003 "A Man Apart." 

But Silva truly made his film mark as the silent assassin known as "The Skull" in 1983's "Scarface." As Pacino's cocaine-filled drug lord Tony Montana rages at an army of would-be killers filling his body with bullets, "The Skull" wordlessly walks behind Montana and shoots him in the back with a shotgun. 

Montana falls, arms outstretched, through an ornate gold banister into the fountain below. End of director Brian De Palma's tragic tale.

On TV, Silva appeared in "Hill Street Blues," "227," "Miami Vice," "MacGyver,"  "Key West," and "Walker, Texas Ranger." He played Senator Vrax in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" (episodes "United" and "The Aenar") and as series regular Hector Allegria on Fox's short-lived comedy "Key West."

Friend Laura Fuino, who met Silva on the set of "Scarface," said the man was far different than the menacing actor he could portray onscreen.

"He played all the tough guys, but he was very well read and elegant," said Fuino, who added that Silva was a talented photographer. "He was just a kind, caring person, a real gentle giant."

Silva is survived by his wife, Pamela, his daughter, Lucia and two grandchildren.

Lucia described her father over an email to USA TODAY: "Though my dad absolutely loved acting, his most treasured roles were those of adoring husband, devoted father, and loving friend and family man. Terrifying on screen, in person he was warm, generous, and disarming. He loved to cook and entertain friends. He and my mother hosted countless dinner parties filled with great food, music, laughter and conversation into the wee hours. He lived and loved fully, and truly believed he was the luckiest man on earth."