Paul D’Amato, Tim ‘Dr. Hook’ McCracken in ‘Slap Shot,’ Dies at 76
variety.comCaroline Brew editor Paul D’Amato, best known for playing Tim “Dr. Hook” McCracken in hockey comedy “Slap Shot,” died after a four-year battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disease, on Monday in East Brookfield, Mass.
He was 76. “Slap Shot” co-star Steve Carlson confirmed the news in a post on X. “RIP Paul D’Amato,” he wrote. “Sending heart felt condolences to Family and fellow friends, actors.” D’Amato’s other notable credits include best picture winner “The Deer Hunter,” (pictured, in which he plays a Green Beret), “Heaven’s Gate,” “Suspect” with Cher and Dennis Quaid, “F/X” and “Six Ways to Sunday.” Additionally, John Lindley Byrne, writer and artist of Marvel Comics’s “X-Men,” was said to have based the look of Wolverine on D’Amato in “Slap Shot.” D’Amato was born in Worcester and later raised in Spencer, Mass.
He began working as a stage hand when he was about 14, inspiring him to become an actor. Both an athlete and actor, he appeared in theater productions and on the ice hockey team while attending Emerson College.
His acting and athletic abilities paid off: in 1976, he landed the role of Tim “Dr. Hook” McCracken in the Paul Newman-led hockey classic.
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