WORCESTER—Paul D’Amato was known for his menacing looks in his brief, but scene-stealing roles as Tim “Dr. Hook” McCracken in “Slap Shot,” a 1977 cult classic starring Paul Newman, and as a Green Beret in “The Deer Hunter,” winner of the 1978 Academy Award for Best Picture.
“Paul’s eyes could convey more than most actors could in 50 pages of script,” said Marina Re, his companion for the past 23 years.
“He could act without saying a word,” said local deejay Mark Veau, a friend of D’Amato’s.
Artist John Byrne was said to have been so inspired by Dr. Hook’s crazy-eyed look and scruffy sideburns, he copied them for his illustration of Wolverine in the X-Men comic books.
“He loved it,” Re said. “He was just so proud of that. That piece of trivia was one of his favorite things that he would flip people out with.”
Re also knew another side of D’Amato, who died at age 76 at his home in East Brookfield on Feb. 19 after a four-year battle with the rare brain disease Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.
“Paul was goofy and fun,” Re said. “He was kind of the opposite of what his face looked like. He looked like the meanest man on earth and I’ve got to tell you he was a teddy bear. He was the sweetest, kindest man I have ever known and I would say anyone who knew him would say the same thing.”
D’Amato was a character actor who was a real character.
D’Amato was born in Worcester and lived in Spencer until his family moved to Framingham shortly before he entered Framingham North High School.
D’Amato got his start on stage as a tap dancing student at the Worcester Auditorium in the 1950s. He learned how to skate while growing up in Spencer and he played hockey while attending Emerson College in Boston. His ability to play hockey helped land him his role in “Slap Shot” as Dr. Hook, so named because he was an intimidating hockey goon who used his stick as a weapon. The following year, he appeared in “The Deer Hunter” with Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep.
In the 1987 thriller “Suspect,” D’Amato put a knife to Cher’s throat in another memorable scene.
However, Re said his favorite role was playing Howard Hughes in “Seduced” more than 30 years ago for his own theater company in the basement of his home in the East Village of New York City. The performance earned him an Off Off Broadway Award for Best Actor.
“Everybody remembers him from the movies,” Re said, “but he was an unbelievable theater actor. I did several plays with him and he was absolutely brilliant. Being on stage with him was the highlight of my career. You forgot he was Paul D’Amato and he became whoever he was portraying.”
D’Amato appeared in several movies and television shows, including “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”
“His mom and dad were surprised at how good he was at acting,” his sister Andrea D’Amato said. “He always wanted to do it. He persevered. He just kept on doing it.”
Andrea D’Amato, 68, was also born in Worcester and grew up in Framingham. She lives now in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Andrea remembers when she was young her brother made her boxing gloves of socks wrapped with ace bandages. He dropped to his knees and urged her to try to punch him in the face.
“A couple of times I landed punches and he would fall back and just laugh,” she said. “That was great. Having that memory is important to me.”
In 2005, D’Amato left New York and bought a home in East Brookfield overlooking Lake Lashaway. That’s where he died.
Veau, 59, of Worcester, interviewed D’Amato in 2010 about his charitable work on WORC 98.9 AM Radio after they met at a Worcester Sharks game at the DCU Center. The two became friends.
“He was so fond of this area,” Veau said. “He would just gleam when he talked about it, anything related to it, but especially helping the community and forwarding the community to a better place.”
Re met D’Amato 23 years ago when they auditioned for a play at the Flea Theater in New York. Her girlfriend was supposed to read for the part, but she couldn’t make it so Re took her place. Over the years, Re has performed in Off Broadway shows and acted in many shows at the former Foothills Theater in Worcester as well as in productions in Boston, Gloucester and several other places.
After they had dated for a couple of weeks, D’Amato was out picking up dinner and Re found one of his old demo tapes and watched it. She was surprised to see that the demo included D’Amato’s scene as a Green Beret from “The Deer Hunter.”
Re had watched the movie years before and the image still burned in her memory of D’Amato playing a Green Beret and twice saying, “F**k it,” when asked about the Vietnam War.
“That scene haunted me,” she said. “What he conveyed in a single look was just unbelievable. It was the lasting image of that movie. So when I put that demo in and that came on, I freaked. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going out with that guy who haunted me forever.’ I thought, ‘Look at those eyes. This man has been to hell and back.’ And it was such a beautiful scene of foreshadowing of what was going to happen in the entire movie.”
Re said she’s received many phone calls from people D’Amato helped and mentored. He allowed anyone who needed a helping hand to stay in his loft in New York City with him.
He also did a lot of charitable work. During the summers, he would appear at three charity events a week. He would donate a signed Syracuse Bulldogs jersey from Slap Shot to be auctioned.
“He would drive anywhere and do anything,” Re said.
In addition to acting, D’Amato enjoyed driving motorcycles, skiing and watching hockey.
For many years, D’Amato fitted ski boots, and mounted and tuned skis at Wachusett Mountain Ski Area in Princeton.
On Jan. 26, he had the chance to ski for one last time. Wachusett Mountain co-owner David Crowley also has PSP and the family allowed D’Amato to use his sit ski, a specially designed seat attached to skis that is pushed down the slopes by a skier. All of his former co-workers showed up for what turned out to be a “Paul D’Amato Day” at the ski area.
D’Amato skied four runs down the mountain and enjoyed a great day, but he knew he didn’t have much longer to live. According to Re, soon after that day of skiing he said, “In the words of the Deer Hunter Green Beret, ‘F**k it,’ I’m out of here.’”
He died at home less than a month later.
Re said that after D’Amato returned to the Worcester area, he took care of his parents until they died. So she was determined to take care of him until his dying breath and never allow him to move into a nursing home.
Even though D’Amato hadn’t appeared in movies or television shows later in his life, people still recognized him. Even his doctors recalled that he had portrayed Dr. Hook. On the final day of his life, his hospice nurse noticed the Emerson hockey jersey he was wearing. She had played hockey as well and it dawned on her that D’Amato had played Dr. Hook in Slap Shot.
Re said D’Amato suffered from speech and walking trouble and tremors for three years before he was correctly diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy at Massachusetts General Hospital about a year ago.
“He coped with it a bazillion times better than I did,” Re said. “He faced it with unbelievable grace, never complained. When you asked him, ‘How are you?’ He would say, ‘Fine.’”
He appeared to have used his acting skills to mask the seriousness of his disease.
The family plans to hold a celebration of D’Amato for family and friends in a few weeks. Re said she wants the celebration to be a fun event.
“Because Paul was a funny guy and I think he wants people to tell funny stories about the things he did throughout his life,” Re said.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
