Ron Silver, 62, Tony winner, social and political activist

Actor Ron Silver, 62, who won a Tony Award as a take-no-prisoners Hollywood producer in David Mamet's

Speed-the-Plow

and did a political about-face from loyal Democrat to Republican activist after the Sept. 11 attacks, died Sunday.

"Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him early Sunday morning" in New York City, said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Mr. Silver helped found. "He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years."

Mr. Silver, an Emmy nominee for a recurring role as a slick strategist for liberal President Jed Bartlet on The West Wing, had a long history of balancing acting with left-leaning social and political causes. But after the 2001 terrorist attacks, longtime Democrat Silver turned heads in Hollywood with outspoken support of President George W. Bush over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His switch to a more conservative image threatened to overshadow an esteemed career on stage, television, and film, along with his long history of activism, which included cofounding the nonpartisan Creative Coalition, an advocacy group for entertainers.

"He was a talented actor, a scholar, and a great believer in participatory democracy," Bronk said. "He was an activist who became a great artist and his contributions will never be forgotten."

His big-screen credits included Ali, Reversal of Fortune, Enemies: A Love Story, Silkwood and Semi-Tough.

Besides The West Wing, Mr. Silver was a regular or had recurring roles on such TV shows as Veronica's Closet, Chicago Hope, and Wiseguy. He directed and costarred in the 1993 TV movie Lifepod, a science-fiction update of Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.

His Tony for Speed-the-Plow came in 1988, a year after he earned his first Emmy nomination, for the murder thriller Billionaire Boys Club.

He continued his recurring role on The West Wing, joking that he faced some taunting over his views from coworkers on the show, which took place in a fiercely liberal White House administration.

"Often when I walked onto the set of The West Wing some of my colleagues would greet me with a chanting of 'Ron, Ron, the neo-con.' It was all done in fun but it had an edge," Mr. Silver wrote in a Nov. 15, 2007, entry of his blog on the Pajamas Media Web site.

Born July 2, 1946, in New York City, he was the son of Irving and May Silver. His father worked in New York's garment industry and his mother was a teacher. He earned a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master's degree in Chinese history from St. John's University. He also studied drama at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Actors Studio.

Mr. Silver and ex-wife Lynne Miller had a son, Adam, and daughter, Alexandra.

Once recruited as a CIA apprentice, he maintained an interest in politics, international affairs, and social causes throughout his life.

He served as president of the Actor's Equity Association, was appointed in the late 1990s by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to head New York City's Millennium Committee and was appointed by Bush to the board of directors for the U.S. Institute of Peace.

No matter on which end of the political spectrum his activism fell, Mr. Silver viewed such involvement as something of a duty for entertainers.

"I think there's almost an obligation," he said in a 1991 interview with the AP.