Michael ontkean biography

All All. Sign In. Michael Leonard Ontkean.

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Michael Ontkean, best known for playing the minor league hockey player Ned Braden in the cult classic Slap Shot , was born on January 24, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Michael was raised Catholic and attended Catholic elementary and high schools. Like many young Canadian men, he grew up playing hockey. He was good enough to earn a hockey scholarship to the University of New Hampshire, a Division I program.

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He was a standout player at UNH in his three seasons as a varsity player from Division I hockey teams did not allow freshmen to play on the varsity team in those days. After graduating from UNH in , he did not pursue a professional hockey career but appeared on the Canadian series Hudson's Bay , which ran for one season in , but did not appear again professionally as an actor until an episode of Ironside was broadcast in He moved to Los Angeles to become an actor.

After taking roles on episodic TV shows and appearing in TV movies from , he had his breakthrough with a lead in the TV series The Rookies , which debuted in September He played policeman Willie Gillis on the series, but left after the season and was replaced by Chris Owens Bruce Fairbairn. His co-star, Kate Jackson , would later appear as his wife in the then-controversial film Making Love , in which Ontkean played a married man who leaves his wife after coming out after an affair with his gay lover.

Earlier, Ontkean's skill as a hockey player enabled him to beat out Peter Straus and other actors for the role as the disaffected Ned Braden in Slap Shot In the film, he performed all of his on-ice shots himself.