Jon Cavaluzzo — museum audio voice-over ace, S.F. bartender
Just about anyone who has ever been to a museum has unknowingly heard the resonant bass of Jon Cavaluzzo, a voice-over actor who did audio for some 70 museums nationwide and overseas.
Mr. Cavaluzzo, a longtime San Francisco resident and popular bartender, died Feb. 2 while visiting family in New Jersey. He was 55, and the cause of death was pneumonia that he contracted while hospitalized for a fractured back, said his sister, Laura Cavaluzzo, of San Francisco.
During a 30-year career, both in New York and San Francisco, Mr. Cavaluzzo worked onstage as a versatile actor and as a recorded voice, narrating the audio tours that come through headphones during special exhibits. Local- ly, he did narration for the de Young Museum, the Presidio Trust, and the audio tour for the grand reopening of the California Academy of Sciences in 2008.
“You’d walk into the Mount Vernon museum in Virginia and through the headphones you’d hear the voice of George Washington, and that was Jon,” Laura Cavaluzzo said. “Whether it was an exhibit about Russia or China or American history, he was known as a ‘one-take wonder,’ and he was sought after for that. He could just walk in, put the cans on his ears and do it without hesitation.”
Outside museums, Mr. Cavaluzzo’s voice was best heard at Lucky 13 on Market Street and the Valley Tavern, formerly the Rat and Raven, in Noe Valley.
With a shaved head and multiple face piercings, he was burly and buff from lifting weights. Behind the plank, he would put on a gruff air with customers then surprise them with his conversational knowledge of history, philosophy and art. If he detected a foreign accent on a customer, he would welcome that person in any of a dozen languages.
“He just delighted in that, because it wasn’t expected,” Laura Cavaluzzo said.
Born and raised in Bernardsville, N.J., Mr. Cavaluzzo was the seventh of nine kids in a house with one bathroom. He discovered his talent in high school, where he starred in the high school plays and musicals. He also played soccer and baseball, and was a champion butterfly swimmer.
He graduated from Mason Gross School of the Arts, the conservator at Rutgers Univer- sity. He moved to New York City and became pals with Jonathan Larson, the late playwright and director for “Rent.” Before that musical hit Broadway, Mr. Cavaluzzo recorded songs and workshopped performances with Larson, and the role of “Tom Collins” was written for him, Cavaluzzo said.
In 1994, Mr. Cavaluzzo moved to San Francisco, which he had fallen for while visiting his younger sister. He lived in Noe Valley and Upper Market, and was self-taught on electric guitar.
As a child, Mr. Cavaluzzo had fallen 20 feet out of a cherry tree, and compressed four vertebrae. His back finally gave way a month ago when he bent over the sink to brush his teeth. Hospitalized briefly, he was determined to fly to New York and a 20th anniversary memorial for Larson, creator of “Rent.” But by the time he got there, the pain was so severe that he required hospitalization again.
Survivors include his girlfriend, Monique Calello, of Staunton, Va.; mother, Edith Cavaluzzo of Bernardsville, N.J.; and six brothers and sisters. Celebrations of his life to be held in both San Francisco and New Jersey are pending.