He appeared in 60 films between 1912 and 1929. Gravina was an orchestra conductor in his native Italy. As the conductor at Louisiana Scala, among the noted vocalists he worked with were Mary Garden and Enrico Caruso.
At some point he left music to become a character actor, sharing his reasons for the career change with no one.
As the owner of many theaters in South America, Gravina was financially secure enough to retire from motion pictures by 1924, but he preferred to remain in acting.