The best TV/movie actor to attend every Hockey East school

Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a six-part series in which a Pucks and Rec writer will select the top contemporary entertainment alum from each school in a Division I hockey conference. The 11 institutions that will comprise Hockey East in 2017-18 make up this week’s edition. All filmography and award information comes via the Internet Movie Database.

Boston College: Amy Poehler
Two decades after graduating, Poehler took a playful jab at her alma mater while co-hosting the 2014 Golden Globes with Tina Fey. That same evening, she fulfilled the third-time’s-the-charm adage by finally prevailing in the “Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical” category.

But the comedic actress had hardly been starved for hardware, building a trophy case that rivals Jerry York’s. Between 2003 and 2016, Poehler’s work at the Golden Globes, on Saturday Night Live, on Parks and Recreation and in the 2015 movie Inside Out have earned her 26 awards.

Time will tell whether she adds to that via The House, due to hit theaters in a month.

Boston University: Julianne Moore
Moore was a freshman on Commonwealth Avenue when former Terriers Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig, Jack O’Callahan and Dave Silk were captivating the nation in Lake Placid.

Two years ago, Moore had her own golden moment at the Oscars, where her performance in Still Alice earned her the best leading actress title. This followed her 2012 victory in the same category at the Emmys for her portrayal of Sarah Palin in the TV movie Game Change. And she has at least four TV or film projects to come in the next year-plus.

Honorable mention: Jason Alexander, who earned numerous nominations, a handful of shared victories and two solo American Comedy Awards for his part on Seinfeld, but has not duplicated his past success in this century.

Connecticut: Meg Ryan
Though not nearly as prominent as she was in the 1990s, Ryan still outshines all active actors trained in Storrs. Perhaps that will change if recent SNL departure Bobby Moynihan skyrockets to stardom, but potentialities have no bearing here.

For what it’s worth, Ryan did garner a pair of international award nominations in 2016 for her part in Ithaca. And she is still relatively young at 55, so her second wind may just be brewing.

Maine: Timothy Simons
Simons, who overlapped in Orono with the 1999 national championship team, is somewhat of a late bloomer, having attained his first acting credit the year he turned 30. But he subsequently landed a regular role on the hit HBO series, Veep, parlaying that into five ensemble award nominations and a smattering of movie roles.

Simons will appear in at least two films to be released this year, and is slated to star as the protagonist’s potentially perilous love interest in 2018’s Serial Dater.

Massachusetts: Richard Gere
In 2012, Gere’s former classmate, David Zucker, submitted this memory to the UMass theater program’s website: “I am the person credited by him in multiple interviews and biographies as taking him to his first professional audition. I had to practically drag him to it, bullying him into my car for the 2 hour silent (he was never much for social conversation) drive to the Wellesley College theatre to audition for Paul Barstow of the Provincetown Playhouse. He got the job, I didn’t (another story).”

For Gere, that day trip yielded four decorated decades of professional acting. The four-time Golden Globe nominee came out on top in 2003 for Chicago, then returned to the ballot in 2013 for Arbitrage.

Massachusetts-Lowell: Bonnie Comley
Though her stage experience eclipses her film scroll, and while her production career has outshone her acting, Comley counts for these purposes. Over a three-decade span, she has appeared onscreen in at least 14 shows or movies, and also has three Tony Awards to her credit.

Merrimack: Charlie Day
It does not take much effort to consider who is carrying the team on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Only Day and Danny DeVito have earned nominated any individual award nominations for their work on the 12-year-old show. Only Day has won, coming out on top of the 2016 Online Film & Television Association’s ballot for best supporting actor in a comedy series.

Meanwhile, Day has outclassed his four core castmates with his outside repertoire. The Horrible Bosses and Pacific Rim series stand out among his silver-screen stints. In between, he took the time to return to North Andover as his alma mater’s 2014 commencement speaker.

New Hampshire: Mike O’Malley
O’Malley does not get as much glamor as his colleagues. But after fading at the end of Yes, Dear and then turning heads on Glee, he has enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence. Over the last two years, he was tabbed for supporting slots in Concussion and Sully.

Northeastern: Jane Curtin
Before Poehler and before Harvard product Colin Jost, Curtin was the first graduate of a Beanpot school to anchor SNL’s Weekend Update.

As with UConn and UMass, there is not much in the fresh bin from TV or movie performers with an NU degree. But in this decade, the one-time “Queen of Deadpan” has been enlisted for guest spots on multiple CBS dramas. And she is poised to reunite with Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? next year, five years after they worked together in The Heat.

Providence: Janeane Garofalo
Another honorable mention goes to John O’Hurley, whose distinctive voice is still earning ample animation gigs and who still shows up every Thanksgiving for the National Dog Show. But his J. Peterman and Family Feud days are far behind, and Garofalo — who was a junior when the Skating Friars went to the 1985 Frozen Four — has since eclipsed his current mainstream stature.

In 1994, People magazine noted that, while attending PC, “Garofalo was inspired by the example of her stand-up comedy idols Paula Poundstone and Bill Hicks to enter a cable-TV contest seeking the funniest person in Rhode Island. At that point she might have been the shiest, but she forced herself to go onstage. She won handily.”

Since then, she has won three other awards, plus 14 nominations from 11 different guilds.

Vermont: Mark Boone Junior
Boone has kept busy since he finished working on Sons of Anarchy. His IMDB profile mentions 23 credits in the last three years, including recent guest spots on Elementary and The Last Man on Earth.

Boone, who attended UVM under birth name Mark Heidrich, has also rubbed elbows with Christian Bale, Steve Buscemi, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David on each actor’s most memorable works.