Cvetic went to comfort his grieving fellow officers, and he brought Nolte along. By tragic coincidence, the day that event was scheduled, a Stanton Heights man fatally shot three Pittsburgh Police officers. But mostly, the retired cop recalls how easily he connected with the actor whose nearly 50-year career – 48 Hours, The Prince of Tides, Affliction - has included critical acclaim, a slew of award nominations, and starring roles opposite the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Barbra Streisand, and Robert DeNiro.ĭuring the shooting of Warrior, Cvetic recruited Nolte to speak at an April event he’d organized at Heinz Field to commemorate shooting victims in Allegheny County. Thus began a deep if unlikely friendship.Īs Nolte puts it today, “Jimmy was officially put in as my, you could call it 'probationary officer,' to take care of Nick Nolte during the movie Warrior.”Ĭvetic has some funny stories about that assignment, including one about a flooded hotel room (which he said he first learned about when Nolte asked where he could find a squeegee). Now the walrus-mustached Cvetic, started hanging out with Nolte. Following a storied career as an undercover narcotics detective, the Garfield native has concentrated not only on boxing, but also on avocations like organizing epic Christmas toy collections, and, perhaps most surprisingly, poetry. Cvetic was more than the boxing coach O’Connor first knew him as. O'Connor recruited Jimmy Cvetic, the distinctive Pittsburgh character whom he'd met while scouting local gyms for the film. But Nolte and Warrior director Gavin O’Connor agreed that Nolte, an inveterate partier, could use a minder. It wasn’t the Hollywood star’s first time here he’d visited a few years earlier for his role in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. In 2009, Nick Nolte came to Pittsburgh to shoot Warrior, a drama set in the world of mixed martial arts.

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