Nicholas Cuccia (pronounced coo-cha; January 10, 1912 â€" January 29,
1994), better known by his stage name Nick Cravat, was an American
actor and stunt performer.Nicholas Cuccia was born in Manhattan, New
York City. His real surname was Italian and too hard to pronounce, so
he took a stage name, Cravat, from a character in a play he had seen
and liked.Cravat and Burt Lancaster met as youngsters at a summer camp
in New York and became lifelong friends. They created an acrobatic act
called Lang and Cravat in the early 1930s, and joined the Kay Brothers
circus in Florida. 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. He also played the "gremlin" on the wing of an
airplane in the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000
Feet".Cravat's first wife, Arlene, died in the 1950s He had two
daughters from his second and final marriage, Marcelina "Marcy"
Cravat-Overway and Christina "Tina" Cravat, who also goes by the name
Tina Cuccia.
1994), better known by his stage name Nick Cravat, was an American
actor and stunt performer.Nicholas Cuccia was born in Manhattan, New
York City. His real surname was Italian and too hard to pronounce, so
he took a stage name, Cravat, from a character in a play he had seen
and liked.Cravat and Burt Lancaster met as youngsters at a summer camp
in New York and became lifelong friends. They created an acrobatic act
called Lang and Cravat in the early 1930s, and joined the Kay Brothers
circus in Florida. 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. He also played the "gremlin" on the wing of an
airplane in the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000
Feet".Cravat's first wife, Arlene, died in the 1950s He had two
daughters from his second and final marriage, Marcelina "Marcy"
Cravat-Overway and Christina "Tina" Cravat, who also goes by the name
Tina Cuccia.
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