JERUSALEM — Ron Silver, an award-winning actor and co-founder of an organization calling for a united Jerusalem, has died.

Silver, who won a Tony Award for his performance in Speed-the-Plow, died March 15 in New York City two years after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He was 62.

In 2000, Silver co-founded the One Jerusalem organization, calling for a united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in opposition to the Oslo peace accords.

He was a liberal activist who helped found the Creative Coalition, an arts-oriented political group, in 1989. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he switched his party affiliation from Democrat to independent and became a public supporter of former U.S. president George W. Bush. He was a featured speaker at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

He began hosting the Ron Silver Show, a weekly politics and public affairs radio program, on Sirius Satellite Radio in February 2008.

While Silver won a Tony in 1988 for his portrayal of Hollywood producer Charlie Fox in the David Mamet play, he also excelled as a film and television actor. Silver was nominated for an Emmy Award as Bruno Gianelli on The West Wing TV series and received acclaim for his portrayal of lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a staunch Israel advocate, in the 1990 film Reversal of Fortune.