Al Checco Papers
Scope and Contents
Al Checco was a prolific character actor, whose career spanned from the 1940's to his death in 2015. This collection consists mostly of memoriabilia, photographs, and scripts pertaining to Checco's career on the stage and screen. The majority of the collection spans from the 1950s-1990s and has been divided into four series, personal, professional, photographs, and AV.
The personal series (0.75 linear feet) contains mostly newspaper clipping spanning mostly from 1940-1970 as well as childhood memoriabilia and personal correspondence.
The professional series (2.25 linear feet) contains mostly playbilsl and scripts from many of Checco's performances.
The photographs series (2 linear feet) is divided into personal, professional, and scrapbooks. The personal photos are mostly childhood and family photographs, specifically highlighted are photos of Don Knotts, long time comedic partner of Al Checco. Professional photographs span throughout Checco's stage career. There are several scrapbooks that contain previously collected material mostly from the 40s and 50s, highlighting photographs, playbills, and some newspaper clippings.
The AV series (1 linear foot) is made up of tape and record voice recording as well as film and VHS.
Dates
- Creation: 1921-2015
Biography
Al Checco, a Pittsburgh native born in East Liberty in 1921, was a prolific character actor on both the stage and screen with a career extending from the 1940's until his death in 2015. Checco graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1947 and maintained a close relationship with the university, volunteering his time with the Carnegie Mellon West Coast Drama Clan. Checco was honored by Carnegie Mellon with an alumni services award in 1975 and the distinguished alumni award in 2001. Checco started his career touring alongside comedian Don Knotts in the Army Detachment X, a special performance branch of the United States Army designed to entertain troops in the Pacific in WWII. Checco is also known for his on screen roles in such movies as Bullitt and Pete's Dragon, as well as several guest appearances on The Andy Griffith Show and Batman.
Extent
6.0 Linear feet (6 boxes)
Language
English
Overview
This collection contains the papers of noted character actor Al Checco. Of special note in this collection is Checco's work during WWII as a member of "Stars and Gripes," a show performed to entertain troops stationed in the Pacific during WWII.
- Title
- Al Checco Papers, 1921-2015
- Status
- Completed
- Subtitle
- 2015.14
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Rachel Moore
- Date
- February 2016
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Carnegie Mellon University Archives Repository