Paul D’Amato, Tim ‘Dr. Hook’ McCracken in ‘Slap Shot,’ Dies at 76

Mike Barnes
·3 min read
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Paul D’Amato, who portrayed the despicable goon Tim “Dr. Hook” McCracken in the classic hockey movie Slap Shot and had a memorable scene in the best picture Oscar winner The Deer Hunter, has died. He was 76.

D’Amato died Monday at his home in East Brookfield, Massachusetts, after a four-year battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disorder, his fiancée, actress Marina Re, told The Hollywood Reporter.

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“He was the most wonderful, sweetest guy, he fought so hard against this horrendous disease,” she said.

D’Amato also played a razor- and knife-wielding bad guy in Peter Yates’ Suspect (1987), starring Cher and Dennis Quaid, and appeared in other notable films including Heaven Can Wait (1978), F/X (1986) and Six Ways to Sunday (1997).

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, D’Amato ice skated since childhood, served with the National Guard and attended Emerson College in Boston, where he acted in school plays and was a member of the hockey team before graduating in 1973.

He appeared in a Cambridge Ensemble production of Jean Genet’s Deathwatch that transferred to off-Broadway in 1975 and sold insurance like his father, Albert, before he was one of just three actors among the two dozen who came to hockey tryouts for Slap Shot in 1976 to be hired.

In the 1977 Universal release, directed by George Roy Hill, D’Amato was easy to hate as the cheap-shot artist McCracken, captain of the Syracuse Bulldogs of the fictional Federal Hockey League (he earned his Dr. Hook nickname for using his stick as a weapon).

When McCracken punches the referee in the head during the championship game after a melee breaks out, the Charlestown Chiefs, led by player-coach Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman), are awarded the title by forfeit.

“The first line that I ever said in a movie was, ‘Dunlop, you suck cock,'” D’Amato recalled in a 2007 interview. “I was very nervous and excited at the same time. The scene was pretty simple and straightforward, and I realized that being nervous was no excuse. So, like James Cagney would want, I planted my feet, looked him square in the eye and told him what I thought of him … It worked out pretty well, butterflies and all.”

Steve Carlson, one of the three Hanson brothers of Slap Shot, paid tribute to him on X.

D’Amato quickly portrayed another hockey player in the 1977 CBS telefilm The Deadliest Season, with that character dying after an on-ice confrontation with another player (Michael Moriarty).

In Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978), D’Amato appeared as a reflective Green Beret just back from Vietnam who is pestered at a bar during a wedding reception by Robert De Niro’s Michael Vronsky and his friends (played by Christopher Walken and John Savage).

He then reunited with Cimino to portray a cowboy in Heaven’s Gate (1980).

D’Amato’s résumé also included stints on The Six Million Dollar Man, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent and lots of stage work. He started a couple of theater companies in New York City, and he and Re first met when they were in a 2002 play together.

D’Amato worked in ski shops for four decades and raised considerable money over the years for charities by auctioning off an autographed No. 9 Syracuse Bulldogs hockey sweater. And his McCracken is said to have inspired the look of artist John Byrne’s Wolverine.

Survivors also include his sister, Andrea, and her partner, Rose; niece Nandita; aunt Pat; and uncle Michael. A celebration of life will be held at a later date; please check here for details. Donations in his memory may be made to CurePSP.

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