Nick Cravat

Nicholas Cuccia (pronounced coo-cha; January 10, 1912 – January 29, 1994),[2] better known by his stage name Nick Cravat, was an American actor and stunt performer.

Nick Cravat
Nick Cravat (right) with Burt Lancaster, performing as Lang and Cravat with the Federal Theatre Project Circus (1935–38)
Born
Nicholas Cuccia

January 10, 1912
New York City, U.S.
DiedJanuary 29, 1994(1994-01-29) (aged 82)
Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Resting placeValhalla Memorial Park Cemetery
Occupation(s)Actor, stunt performer
Years active1930–1977
Spouse(s)Mae Ruth Simpkins Cuccia (?-1952; her death)
Cecilia Brink
Children2[1]
William Shatner with Cravat as the gremlin in The Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963)

Early life

Nicholas Cuccia was born in Manhattan, New York City. His real surname was Italian and considered too hard to pronounce, so he took a stage name, Cravat, from a character in a play he had seen and liked.[3]

Career

Cravat and Burt Lancaster met as youngsters at a summer camp in New York and became lifelong friends.[4] They created an acrobatic act called Lang and Cravat in the early 1930s, and joined the Kay Brothers circus in Florida.[5] The pair worked at various circuses and in vaudeville. In 1939, Lancaster suffered a hand injury that ended their act. They would later reunite. He co-starred with Lancaster in nine films, including The Flame and the Arrow (1950), The Crimson Pirate (1952), Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), The Scalphunters (1968) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). He played a mute character in several films such as The Flame and the Arrow, The Crimson Pirate, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955), and the TV series The Count of Monte Cristo, mostly because his thick Brooklyn accent would have been out of place.[6] He also played the "gremlin" on the wing of an airplane in the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet".[7]

Personal life

Cravat's first wife was Mae Ruth Cuccia, also known as Arlene Cravat. He had two daughters from his second marriage, to Cecilia Brink: Marcelina "Marcy" Cravat-Overway and Christina "Tina" Cravat (a.k.a. Tina Cuccia).

Marcy Cravat is an environmental documentary filmmaker. Her debut film, Angel Azul, completed in 2014, won 12 awards. The film explores issues related to coral reefs through art activism. Dirt Rich, her second film, explores solutions to reverse the effects of global warming by re-stabilizing safe atmospheric carbon levels by returning carbon to the soil.[8]

Death

Cravat died of lung cancer in Woodland Hills, California, on January 29, 1994, at the age of 82.[4] He is interred at North Hollywood's Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Filmography

References
  1. "Nick Cravat; Actor, 82". The New York Times. February 2, 1994.
  2. Gifford, Denis (March 23, 1994). "Obituary: Nick Cravat". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 20, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  3. "Artist | tina cuccia | nick cravat".
  4. "Nick Cravat; Actor, 82 (obituary)". The New York Times. February 2, 1994.
  5. Tina Cuccia-Cravat (April 2010). "Nick Cravat". nickcravat.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
  6. Carr, Jay. "The Crimson Pirate". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  7. Rubin, Steve (January 10, 2018). "January 10 in Twilight Zone History: Remembering Actor Nick Cravat ('Nightmare At 20,000 Feet') on the Anniversary of his Birth". Syfy. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  8. information available on website http://www.dirtrichthemovie.com/
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