Actor Ron Silver, whose immense talent and fine, irony-tinged performances (Reversal of Fortune, The West Wing, the original B’way production of Speed The Plow) were diminished and compromised in the public mind when he became a “9/11 Republican” and gave his earnest support to one of the most destructive and dysfunctional Presidents in U.S. history, died Sunday morning from esophegal cancer.

The 62 year-old actor had been fighting the disease for two years. Too soon, tragic news, sorry to hear it, condolences to his family and friends. I loved Silver’s acting and would like to forgive him for giving a speech in support of Bush-Cheney during the 2004 Republican National Convention — but that’s not going to happen. Silver shamed himself with his Bush allegiance, and history will not judge him kindly. But I greatly admired Silver before he became a right-wing Frankenstein hard-ass. Let’s try and remember him in a pre-9/11 light.