Will Kuluva, 73; Stage, Screen and Television Actor

Will Kuluva, a stage actor who made his Broadway debut in the Al Jolson musical “Hold On to Your Hats” in 1940 and then was seen through many of the putative Golden Years of TV in such classic series as “Naked City,” “Philco Playhouse,” “The Untouchables” and “The Defenders,” has died while on vacation in the Caribbean, it was learned Tuesday.

He was stricken with an embolism Nov. 6 while on a cruise ship, said Frank Tobin, a spokesman.

Kuluva, 73, studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and, after service in World War II, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Returning to New York, he was seen on Broadway in “Darkness at Noon,” “That Lady,” “Arms and the Man,” “Richard III” and “The Shrike.”

He toured in national companies of “Oklahoma!,” “Brigadoon” and “The Time of Your Life” before moving into television in the 1950s.

His motion pictures included “Crime in the Streets,” “Odds Against Tomorrow,” “The Spiral Road,” “Viva Zapata” and “Abandoned.”

In 1971 he filmed 26 episodes of the syndicated underwater adventure “Primus” as the bewhiskered crewman Charlie, but the show only lasted a single season.

Survivors include his daughter, Stephanie, who asks donations in his memory to Amnesty International.