Stu Silver, ‘Throw Momma From the Train’ Screenwriter, Dies at 76

Stu Silver, the writer and producer who created the 1980s sitcoms Webster and It’s a Living and penned the screenplay for the 1987 Billy Crystal-Danny DeVito dark comedy Throw Momma From the Train, has died. He was 76.

Silver died July 18 at Highland Hospital in Rochester, New York, of complications from prostate cancer, his son, Dan Silver, announced.

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Silver also was a writer on the ABC sitcom Soap, also featuring Crystal, during its last three seasons (1978-81), and he worked on other comedies including the spinoff Benson, Bosom Buddies, Star of the Family, The New Odd Couple, Brothers and Good Grief.

He shared an Emmy nomination for outstanding comedy series for his work on Soap in 1981.

Silver, who was adopted, created Webster, which starred Emmanuel Lewis as the adopted son of characters played by real-life husband and wife Alex Karras and Susan Clark. The Chicago-set series ran for six seasons on ABC and in syndication from 1983-89.

It’s a Living, starring Marian Mercer and Ann Jillian and set in a restaurant at the top of a high-rise hotel in Los Angeles, had a six-season run (1980-89) on ABC and in syndication as well. He created that one with Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon.

Orion Pictures’ Throw Momma From the Train (1987), directed by DeVito, was a comedic takeoff of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic murder thriller Strangers on a Train (1951).

Stuart Norton Silver was born in Los Angeles on June 29, 1947, and raised in Rochester. He performed in a local folk band called The Bridger Wells Trio, and after graduating from Monroe High School, he hitchhiked to New York City.

Silver started out as an actor, and his first film credit came in The Cross and the Switchblade (1970), starring Pat Boone and Erik Estrada and directed by Don Murray. He made it to Broadway in 1975 in Dance With Me, directed by Joel Zwick.

In semi-retirement, Silver returned to Rochester and got involved in the local theater. He also starred in a play he wrote about an ice storm that paralyzed the city in 1991.

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