Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a four-part series in which a Pucks and Rec writer will select the top contemporary entertainment citizen of every city in a select minor-league hockey division. The eight markets comprising the AHL Atlantic Division are this week’s focus. All filmography and award information is courtesy of the Internet Movie Database.
Bridgeport: Brian Dennehy
Dennehy will be an octogenarian next July, but he is not slowing down. This calendar year alone projects to see him accumulate seven credits for assorted movies and TV programs. Another movie, Tag, is slated for release in 2018.
Will any of those projects yield additions to a trophy case that includes a 2001 Golden Globe plus two other awards for Death of a Salesman? Not likely, but Dennehy’s assets are still self-evident in the volume of work he is getting.
Charlotte: Ben Browder
Browder was an underclassman at Charlotte’s Myers Park High School at the time of his first real-world acting gig. While he only had a supporting role, he remains the only cast member of 1978’s Duncan’s World with an IMDB profile picture.
Fast-forward four decades, and he is coming off a part in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel. It was a fitting choice given his previous award-winning part on the cult series Farscape.
In between, Browder garnered a guest invitation to two versions of the CSI series as some of his mainstream highlights.
Hartford: Eriq La Salle
Last year, La Salle returned to what he does best (sort of) by guest-starring as a doctor on Angie Tribeca. Two decades ago, he was a three-time Emmy nominee and one-time Golden Globe candidate for portraying Peter Brenton on ER.
Among that show’s star-studded cast, only Anthony Edwards, Juliana Margulies and Noah Wyle drew more individual accolades. La Salle was part of the unit’s four victories in the Screen Actors Guild’s drama ensemble category.
More recently, he enjoyed back-to-back Image nominations for a guest spot on Law & Order: SVU and a role in Relative Stranger.
Hershey: Stephen Pasquale
At 27, Pasquale found his breakout as a supporting constant on Rescue Me. Only five other people can claim they joined star Denis Leary on the core cast for all seven seasons. Most of Pasquale’s fellow regulars rotated between main and recurring status.
He has not displayed quite the same adhesive since then, and his two largest roles (Do No Harm and Doubt) ended in cancellation. But Pasquale has been asked and asked back on a multitude of other hit dramas. Programs he has earned at least five credits for include The Good Wife, American Crime Story and Bloodline.
Lehigh Valley (Allentown): Amanda Seyfried
As precarious as sequels can be, especially when delayed by a decade, Seyfried is going back to her breakout role. Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again, due for release next summer, will lean on her and the other returnees to renew the plus points of the 2008 musical.
For her part, Seyfried essentially springboarded from that to the likes of Les Miserables. Five years after that yielded a little hardware, she appeared in four episodes of the Twin Peaks reboot.
Providence: Christopher Stanley
As Henry Francis, Stanley entered the Mad Men saga midway through the third season. Though naturally eclipsed by Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks and Elisabeth Moss, he appeared in 39 of the show’s remaining episodes.
In the two years since, the Argo and Zero Dark Thirty veteran has attained four other recurring TV roles. Two of them still have yet to hit the screen, further illustrating his kinetic activity.
Springfield: Chloe Sevigny
First, an honorable mention goes to Kurt Russell. Like Dennehy, he continues to land roles, including one opposite Browder in Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2. That chalks up to 55 years and counting in the business.
With that said, Sevigny has two Golden Globe nominations, both more recent than Russell’s one. Her second ended in victory at the 2010 show for Big Love.
That series ended in 2011, but Sevigny’s versatility has kept her occupied. Since 2012, she has amassed 31 completed or pending credits. In the realm of recurring TV parts, her range covers everything from Portlandia and The Mindy Project to American Horror Story and Bloodline.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton: Mary McDonnell
Like Seyfried, her fellow Pennsylvanian, McDonnell has spent the bulk of this year on a nostalgic TV drama. The 65-year-old entered the Fargo narrative with four appearances in the third season as Ruby Goldfarb.
Granted, that is not quite the same as McDonnell’s early-’90s two-time Oscar-nominated heyday. But other relatively recent guest spots, such as the role of Sharon Raydor on The Closer, have translated to Emmy candidacies.
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