Carl Nick Ciarfalio (born November 12, 1953) is an American actor and stuntman. He has appeared in over 300 film and television projects. He is best known for portraying the

Thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

in the

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (April 5, 1926 – May 9, 2024) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he w ...

produced, but unreleased movie ''

The Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four, often abbreviated as FF, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 (cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism in ...

''.

Career

Carl Ciarfalio started his career as a plumber's associate when he was invited by one of his wrestling associates to join him at

Knott's Berry Farm Knott's Berry Farm is a amusement park in Buena Park, California, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. In March 2015, it was ranked as the List of amusement park rankings#North America, twelfth-most-visited theme park in North Ameri ...

as they were looking for big and tall actors to perform for audiences. Ciarfalio took the job for the summer, but he found himself enjoying it. " thin a couple of months I had a cowboy hat and a gun and I was on stage and people were applauding and laughing, and I told my parents, 'I'll go back to school one day'." He never did. He began appearing in numerous film and television projects over the years such as ''

Fight Club ''Fight Club'' is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the 1996 novel ''Fight Club (novel), Fight Club'' by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays The Narrator (F ...

'', '' Mission: Impossible III'' and ''

The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American superhero American comic book, comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of t ...

''. In 1993, Ciarfalio received a call to appear in a

production. "They were looking for a stunt man. They were looking for somebody about six feet tall and weighed about 220 pounds or so...So, I went to the audition and we talked a little bit and they thought I was the guy, which was, you know, very cool." While the actor who was playing Ben Grimm (

Michael Bailey Smith Michael Bailey Smith is an American actor. He is best known for his appearances on the television series ''Charmed'', where he played Belthazor, a Grimlock leader and Shax. Early life Smith was born in Alpena, Michigan, to an Air Force ...

) was tall, he was unable to fit in the Thing suit and thus Ciarfalio found himself wearing the costume which he found "the hottest fucking thing" he ever wore. On October 20, 2014, Ciarfalio launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign to have a biography book published. He reached his goal at $11,055 and in September 2015 published ''Stars, Stunts and Stories: A Hollywood Stuntman's Fall to Fame''. The book was co-written by Teri Ryan.

Filmography

Stunts

Actor

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ciarfalio, Carl Living people 1953 births American stunt performers Male actors from California American people of Italian descent