Nick Mancuso


Nicodemo Antonio Massimo Mancuso is an Italian-Canadian actor, artist, playwright, and director. Beginning his career as a stage actor, he had his breakthrough role in the 1981 drama Ticket to Heaven, for which he won the Genie Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor. He has over 155 film and television credits, including voicing Billy in the slasher film [Black Christmas (1974 film)|Black Christmas], acting as Eli in the film Heartbreakers, starring as Ray on the NBC series Stingray, and playing antichrist Franco Macalousso in the Apocalypse film series.

Early life and education

Mancuso was born May 29, 1948, in Mammola, Calabria, Italy. His family emigrated to Canada in 1956 via Naples, when he was eight years old. He grew up in Ontario and began acting in high school. On graduation, he studied psychology at the University of Toronto, but left to pursue acting full time.

Career

Mancuso began his professional career by performing in theatres across Canada such as the Vancouver Playhouse, Neptune Theatre, Centaur Theatre and Halifax's Pier One experimental theatre, where he was also an associate artistic director for one season. He went on to perform in various independent theatre companies including the Toronto Free Theatre, Canadian Stage Company, Factory Theatre, and the Theatre Passe Muraille. He had his first voice screen role debut with an uncredited role in the 1974 slasher film Black Christmas, as the voice of the stalking murderer Billy. He spent a season in 1976 at the Stratford Festival, with leading roles in The Merchant of Venice, Antony and Cleopatra, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and landed his first screen appearance in a supporting role in Allan Eastman's debut film, A Sweeter Song.
In 1979, he made his American stage debut working directly with Tennessee Williams, starring in Tiger Tail and The Night of the Iguana in Atlanta. During this time, he came to the attention of producers at Columbia Pictures. Martin Ransohoff and Arthur Hiller were instrumental in getting Mancuso for the lead in the horror-thriller [Nightwing (film)|Nightwing], directed by Hiller and co-starring David Warner. Ransohoff and Hiller hoped Nightwing would be a hit and be a breakthrough role for Mancuso, but it failed at the box office.
In the early 1980s, Mancuso had his breakthrough role in Ticket to Heaven in which he played the part of a David Kappel, a non-observant Jewish teacher in Toronto. His girlfriend leaves him and he visits San Francisco to find his footing and see an old friend. He is lured into spending a weekend at a camp that is actually the recruiting and indoctrination center for a religious cult. The film was voted one of the top 10 films of 1981 by the National Board of Review, and earned Mancuso the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. The success of the film and Mancuso's performance put him in the running to play Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Mancuso played the titular role on the NBC series Stingray, which ran two seasons between 1985 and 1987. He played the antichrist Franco Macalousso in Apocalypse, a series of direct-to-video films produced by Cloud Ten Pictures. Among the other roles Mancuso has taken on there was the role of Holden Downes in Captured. In this sometime violent film, he plays a real estate tycoon on the edge. He comes across some thieves who are out to rob him and takes his anger out on them. Instead, he turns the tables on them, making them the victims. He has also appeared in numerous independent and short films.

Personal life

In 1981, Mancuso married Lady Patricia Pelham-Clinton-Hope, a daughter of Henry Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 9th Duke of Newcastle; they divorced in 1983. He later married his second wife, Canadian actress Barbara Williams before divorcing. In 1998, he married his third wife Toronto-born actress Nadia Capone. The two have one child together.
, Mancuso resides in Toronto, and was running a six-week acting workshop there. He has also published a book of poetry titled Mediterranean Man and created a number of abstract paintings. He is fluent in English and Italian, and speaks conversational French.
He underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2011. A longtime vegetarian and proponent of homeopathy, Mancuso joined a class-action lawsuit against the government of Canada in 2012 over its ban of previously available herbs and vitamins that were offered by naturopaths and health food suppliers.

Filmography

Awards