Editor’s note: This is the second 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 12 institutions that will comprise ECAC Hockey make up this week’s edition. All filmography and award information is courtesy of the Internet Movie Database.
Brown: Julie Bowen
From 2010 to 2015, Bowen was a ballot mainstay for the Emmys’ “Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series” prize, winning in 2011 and 2012. Her performance as Claire Dunphy on Modern Family has earned her another seven individual or shared awards from other associations, including two most recently in 2014.
Honorable mention: Emma Watson, who has yet to win any mainstream American awards, but was named the British artist of the year at the 2014 Brittanias.
Clarkson: M. Emmett Walsh
Potsdam has a stingy selection here, but the man hockey fans know best as Dickie Dunn from Slap Shot has found work for six decades since graduating.
The 82-year-old Walsh, who has two upcoming film credits, has garnered guest spots on Empire, Frasier and The X-Files, among other acclaimed small-screen series. And he has an individual Independent Spirit Award and an ensemble Method Fest Award on his resume. He won the former’s inaugural title for “Best Male Lead,” which has since gone to a laundry list of A-listers.
Colgate: Bob Balaban
Like the Golden Knights, the Raiders have sparse representation in the present-day entertainment industry. With that said, the seasoned Balaban is still serving a variety of programs and projects in a variety of projects.
Once nominated for an Oscar in 2002, he has 10 awards on his shelf, most recently a share in a 2013 Central Ohio Film Critics prize for Moonrise Kingdom.
Cornell: Jane Lynch
Between Glee and Hollywood Game Night, Lynch has been a steady presence at the Emmys this decade, winning one award for the former series and two for the latter.
With Hollywood Game Night’s nominations at both last year’s Emmys and Critics Choice Awards, the 1984 Big Red graduate upped her career total to 51, 22 of those translating to triumphs.
So far, Princeton product David Duchovny has earned two Golden Globes for as many series in as many decades. (Photo by Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)
Dartmouth: Connie Britton
For the first four years of this decade, Britton was a constant on the Emmys’ “Outstanding Lead Actress” ballot, even though the reasons were anything but consistent. She nabbed her first two nominations for Friday Night Lights, then one apiece for American Horror Story and Nashville.
Friday Night Lights also amounted to Britton’s victory at the 2010 Gold Derbies, while Nashville yielded nominations at four different award shows in 2013. ABC cut the hit drama loose three years later, but a new abode at CMT may give Britton a chance to rekindle her prowess.
Harvard: Natalie Portman
Fellow Cambridge products Mira Sorvino and Tommy Lee Jones preceded Portman as individual Oscar winners, both in supporting categories. Matt Damon preceded her in the Academy’s lead category by coming out on top for Good Will Hunting.
But besides winning her first Academy Award for her leading role in Black Swan, Portman has outclassed her Crimson brethren, much of whom are older (she turns 36 this week) and more experienced. In all, she has won 79 awards out of 124 nominations, including a return to the Academy’s ballot this past year for Jackie.
In all, 51 different regional, national and international guilds nominated Portman for her performance as the former First Lady. Out of those 51, she prevailed in 19 cases and finished second on numerous other ballots.
Princeton: David Duchovny
Since closing the book on Californication, Duchovny has worked on the short-lived Aquarius and most recently had a guest spot on the Twin Peaks reboot.
Whether this leads to any chances to add to the two Golden Globes he earned for the X–Files and Californication in 1997 and 2008, respectively, remains to be seen. Either way, Duchovny is lightyears removed from when J.V. basketball was his go-to extracurricular endeavor on New Jersey’s Ivy League campus.
Quinnipiac: Mary-Jane Foster
Quinnipiac boasts hardly any prominent alumni in show business. But while studying law in Hamden, the prominent Connecticut political figure dabbled in advertising, acting in both TV and radio ads.
Foster has since held and run for various nonprofit and public offices, been married to Pittsburgh Penguins founder Jack MacGregor for nearly a quarter-century and established her own sports enterprise in the Bridgeport Bluefish baseball team.
Former Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen was back at the Oscars this year as a “Best Actor” nominee. In between, he returned to St. Lawrence to accept an honorary doctorate. (Photo by Dan MacMedan/Getty Images)
Rensselaer: David Hayter
Hayter — who enrolled in 1987, the same year as Joe Juneau — has produced his most celebrated work as a screenwriter. But he was also nominated for a 2005 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Award for his voice role in the Metal Gear video games.
Hayter recently parlayed his prolific video-game repertoire back to the small screen, where he can be heard on The CW’s The Flash. In some ways, it is a throwback to his early career, when he made a smattering of guest appearances on the award-winning Fox Kids Spider–Man series from the mid-’90s.
St. Lawrence: Viggo Mortensen
After a nine-year dry spell, at least by his standards, Mortensen returned to prominence and the Oscars nomination ballot this past winter via Captain Fantastic. He had previously garnered equivalent recognition from the Academy and other guilds circa 2007-08 for Eastern Promises.
Still not quite the award-winning gratification he enjoyed at the start of this century with his Lord of the Rings series castmates, but proof the 1980 SLU graduate still has a full tank.
Union: Ben Schwartz
If we were doing this in 2000, Jeffrey DeMunn would be the runaway winner. Though not as visible as he was then, DeMunn did receive a pair of individual nominations, including a CableACE victory, for his part in the TV movie Citizen X, and two ensemble nominations with the rest of the cast of The Green Mile.
More recently, Schwartz, who graduated from Schenectady in 2003, has already stamped a few testaments to his versatility and long-term promise. As a writer, he earned an Emmy for collaborating on Hugh Jackman’s opening number at the 2009 Oscars. As an actor, he garnered a Gold Derby nomination following the final season of Parks and Recreation, where he guest starred in 21 episodes.
Yale: Meryl Streep
Though she took her undergraduate courses at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Streep kindled her career all the more at Yale Drama School. She subsequently took her Master of Fine Arts and her voice to the 1975 animated film, Everybody Rides the Carousel.
Four decades later, she has three Oscar wins to her credit, and has never gone more than five years without an appearance on the Academy ballot. This year, she brought her total trophy count up to 166 with the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and the Costume Designers Guild’s Distinguished Collaborator Award.
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