Now that we’ve hit the dog days of summer, it is a good time for those new hockey fans to become more familiar with all things puck culture. Today, we will be looking at five NHLers in non-hockey acting roles.
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Puck Culture - 5 NHLers In Non-Hockey Acting Roles - Feb. 24, 2025 – Vol. 78, Issue 08 - Sal Barry
PLAYING A HOCKEY PLAYER in a movie or TV show isn’t much of a stretch for an NHLer. Just start rolling the camera and let him do his thing. But to play a non-hockey character – especially one with lines of dialogue – is something special.
1 CAM NEELY
Dumb and Dumber (1994)
Bruins legend and current team president Cam Neely had cameo roles as himself in the film D2: The Mighty Ducks and the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210. He’s also appeared in the series Rescue Me. But Neely’s most memorable part was in the 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber, where he played a truck driver nicknamed ‘Sea Bass.’ Midway through the film, protagonists/idiots Harry and Lloyd are eating lunch at a diner when Harry tosses a saltshaker over his shoulder for good luck, accidentally hitting Sea Bass in the process. The temperamental trucker gets angry, bullies the two dimwits and then takes Harry’s lunch. Later, Sea Bass attempts to beat up Lloyd in a gas station bathroom. Neely reprised his
2 MARTY MCSORLEY
Con Air (1997)
NHL tough guy Marty McSorley had movie roles as a henchman and as a bouncer, which probably weren’t too hard for someone whose on-ice job was intimidation. But McSorley also appeared as a good guy in the 1997 action thriller Con Air. McSorley played the co-pilot of the titular airplane that gets overrun by the prisoners it’s transporting. When a riot breaks out and prisoners attempt the takeover, McSorley’s character arms himself and tries to quell the uprising. But he quickly gets overpowered by the main villain, leading to his demise. Con Air was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who is a hockey fan and now a part-owner of the Seattle Kraken. Other Bruckheimer-backed projects in which McSorley acted include the movie Bad Boys and TV series CSI: Miami.
3 JEREMY ROENICK
Leverage (2009)
Jeremy Roenick must look good in uniform because he’s been cast as a law-enforcement officer several times. He has had roles as a desk sergeant in two episodes of the show Hack and as a SWAT officer in the series Heist. Not counting appearances where he’s played himself, Roenick last had an acting gig in the series Leverage, where he played a gullible security guard working the front desk of a high-rise office building. Early in the episode, Roenick’s character is easily distracted by a flirtatious French woman – one of the protagonists – as her cohorts infiltrate the building. Later, his character is duped by another good guy who bluffs his way through by posing as a janitor.
4 BRENT BURNS
Vikings (2020)
With his imposing stature, gnarly beard and missing teeth, Brent Burns looks like he was born to play a mercenary henchman in the TV series Vikings. In two episodes of the historical drama’s sixth season, Burns plays the intimidating Skane, a sell-sword hired to lead King Harald’s bodyguards. Skane doesn’t say much in his first appearance – he just looms large in the background – but he gets down to business in the next episode. Skane learns of Harald’s distrust of him and thus plots to murder his boss. Skane speaks some lines and even engages in swordplay. Unfortunately for him, he ends up dying in a rather ghastly fashion. Let’s just call it illegal contact to the head…
5 SEAN AVERY
Oppenheimer (2023)
Sean Avery’s first acting role was in 2005 as a player in the Maurice Richard biopic The Rocket. Since retiring from hockey, Avery has diversified his roles a bit, though he often gets cast as a military-type character. Avery played an army weatherman in the 2023 film Oppenheimer, which won the Oscar for Best Picture. In the role, Avery’s character speaks with the main characters about the storm that rages over the testing site the night before the historic nuclear bomb test. Although he had to audition for the part, Avery already had a prior connection with Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan – he played a soldier in Nolan’s 2020 sci-fi flick Tenet.
