--- name: "Sylvia Miles" canonical: "https://film.one/person/sylvia-miles" roles: ["Actor"] born: "9 September 1932" died: "12 June 2019" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 80 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T05:07:03.606305+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Sylvia Miles Actor. Born 9 September 1932 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 12 June 2019. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 9 September 1932, New York City, New York, USA - **Died:** 12 June 2019 - **Active:** 1969–1987 - **Also known as:** Silvia Miles, Sylvia Scheinwald, Сильвия Майлз - **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations - **Average Fi1m score:** 80, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 85 (1), 1980s 74 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Miles, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q259434, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587249/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/19335 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Midnight Cowboy*](https://film.one/film/midnight-cowboy.md) (85) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Sylvia Miles > Sylvia Miles made a career out of a few minutes at a time. Hand her one scene as a New York woman who has seen it all and she plays the whole life behind it; her Cass in *Midnight Cowboy* is the proof. The first woman Joe Buck approaches in *Midnight Cowboy* (1969) is Cass, a kept woman on Park Avenue. He has come to be paid for sex. She takes him to bed and then, in one scene, takes his money. Miles is on screen for about six minutes, and she does not play the moment as a trick pulled on a fool. She plays a woman who has known for years what everything costs, and who is not going to pretend otherwise for a boy in a cowboy hat. We thought about her for the rest of the film, and the reason is that she never asks for our sympathy; she simply lets us see how long she has been doing this. That was her trade, and it was a narrow one by choice as much as by casting. She had been on stage since 1947 and in television and film from the 1950s, with Off-Broadway work that included *The Iceman Cometh*, before *Midnight Cowboy* got her noticed. Six years later she did it again in *Farewell, My Lovely* (1975), eight minutes as Jessie Halstead Florian opposite Robert Mitchum. Between them came a rare lead, Sally Todd in Paul Morrissey's *Heat* (1972), a faded star in a film from the Andy Warhol stable. Later there was Dolores the realtor in Oliver Stone's *Wall Street* (1987), a part she picked up again for the 2010 sequel, and the matchmaker Hannah Mandelbaum in *Crossing Delancey* (1988). The pattern is plain. Brassy New York women: prostitutes, estate agents, matchmakers, people who talk fast and have a price for everything. Up to 1975 the prostitutes came round too often, and she knew it. She had a defence of the short part that we believe: "I become the character at the time I’m doing it, so it doesn’t matter if it’s two minutes or 200 hours." It is also the limit of the method. A body of work made of six-minute appearances is hard to judge as a body, and the parts she was given rarely asked her to be anything but vivid. Her life as a fixture of the New York social round did not help; for a while people wrote about the parties more than the acting. Start with *Midnight Cowboy*, which is the only one of her films we have reviewed and the one where the scene is built to hold her. Watch for Cass. She is gone almost as soon as she arrives, and you will find yourself waiting for her to come back. ## On Fi1m (2) - *Wall Street* (1987), Fi1m 74, as Dolores the Realtor — [page](https://film.one/film/wall-street.md) - *Midnight Cowboy* (1969), Fi1m 85, as Cass — [page](https://film.one/film/midnight-cowboy.md) ## Complete filmography (45) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Japanese Borscht* (2019), as Mary Tess - *Hollywood: No Sex, Please!* (2018), Actor - *Andy Warhol, Fluorescent* (2016), as (archive footage) - *Mary Tyler Moore: A Celebration* (2015), as Sally Rogers / Pilot-Head of the Family (archive footage) - *Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps* (2010), as Realtor - *Life on Mars* (2008), series, as Mrs. Salvaggio - *Go Go Tales* (2008), as Lilian Murray - *After Midnight: Reflecting on a Classic 35 Years Later* (2004), Actor - *High Times Potluck* (2003), as Ma - *The Boys Behind the Desk* (2000), Actor - *Confession of a Florist* (1999), as Ms. P - *Sex and the City* (1998), series, as Joan - *Denise Calls Up* (1995), as Sharon, Gail's Aunt - *She-Devil* (1989), as Mrs. Fisher - *Nelson Sullivan* (1989), Actor - *Spike of Bensonhurst* (1988), as Congresswoman - *Tattingers* (1988), series, Actor - *Crossing Delancey* (1988), as Hannah Mandelbaum - *Wall Street* (1987), as Dolores the Realtor — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/wall-street.md) - *Sleeping Beauty* (1987), as Red Fairy - *Critical Condition* (1987), as Nurse Maggie Lesser - *The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect* (1986), Actor - *Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale* (1985), as Sweet Susie - *The Equalizer* (1985), series, as Mother - *Miami Vice* (1984), series, as Muriel Goldman — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/tv/miami-vice.md) - *No Big Deal* (1983), as Peincipal Bellows - *Evil Under the Sun* (1982), as Myra Gardener - *The Funhouse* (1981), as Madame Zena - *Shalimar* (1978), as Countess Rasmussen - *Zero to Sixty* (1978), as Flo Ames - *The Sentinel* (1977), as Gerde Engstrom - *The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday* (1976), as Mike - *92 in the Shade* (1975), as Bella - *Farewell, My Lovely* (1975), as Mrs. Florian - *Heat* (1972), as Sally Todd - *Who Killed Mary Whats'ername?* (1971), as Christine - *The Last Movie* (1971), as Script Clerk - *Midnight Cowboy* (1969), as Cass — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/midnight-cowboy.md) - *Pie in the Sky* (1964), as Rose - *Violent Midnight* (1963), as Silvia - *The Defenders* (1961), series, as Miss Constanto - *Parrish* (1961), as Eileen - *Route 66* (1960), series, Actor - *Murder, Inc.* (1960), as Sadie - *Naked City* (1958), series, as Jenny Barr, Girl In Bar, Woman #1 ## Gallery - ![Sylvia Miles](https://film.one/media/person/453610/gallery-508dffc2cb12.jpg) Sylvia Miles — LoveMattersMost, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Sylvia_Miles_in_2007.jpg/1280px-Sylvia_Miles_in_2007.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![PENTAX Image - Sylvia Miles, 2007 in New York City - cropped from a larger image found at Flickr.](https://film.one/media/person/453610/gallery-397ad2e5f3a3.jpg) PENTAX Image - Sylvia Miles, 2007 in New York City - cropped from a larger image found at Flickr. — LoveMattersMost, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Sylvia_Miles_in_2007_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-Sylvia_Miles_in_2007_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Sylvia Miles](https://film.one/media/person/453610/gallery-4ffa586326b7.jpg) Sylvia Miles — Image via TMDB - ![Sylvia Miles](https://film.one/media/person/453610/gallery-5dbe55485c6f.jpg) Sylvia Miles — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated - 1976: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *Farewell, My Lovely* - 1970: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *Midnight Cowboy* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/sylvia-miles