Slap Shot actor, hockey player Guido Tenesi dead at 71: Youre forever a Chief

Former professional hockey player Guido Tenesi, who starred in the 1977 sports classic “Slap Shot,” died at 71 years old.“We’re saddened to learn of the passing of Guido Tenesi, a member of our roster during the 1974 Calder Cup championship, and was known to many more for his role as Billy Charlebois in the classic hockey film “Slapshot,” the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League posted Thursday.“Our hearts are with his family, friends, and teammates.”A cause of death was not announced.Tenesi, a defenseman, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fifth round of the NHL Draft in 1973 and played for minor-league affiliate Hershey for two years.

He played across several pro hockey leagues over the next seven seasons.It was his time on the Johnstown Jets, where he helped lead the team to the North American Hockey League championship in 1974-75, that landed him a role in the Paul Newman comedy.“I played on the same team as Ned Dowd, Dave Hanson, and the Carlsons.

Ned would walk around with a tape recorder, and taking notes on everything that happened on one of our road trips,” Tenesi told the Utica Observer-Dispatch in 2016. ”If someone tripped on the ice, or if a player broke their stick and threw it over the glass, Ned recorded it.”Dowd’s sister Nancy was writing a hockey movie and Ned would play Chiefs’ opponent Ogie Ogilthorpe. “It was neat, being in a movie,” Tenesi said.

“How they made it, is what was so interesting to me.”Slap Shot tells the tale of a failing minor league hockey team, the Charlestown Chiefs, who are led by player and coach Reggie Dunlop, played by Newman.In 2020, Tenesi recalled his time filming the movie as the “good old days” and “a time to remember,” sharing a photo alongside Newman, who died in 2008.Steve Carlson, who played Steve Hanson — the youngest sibling of the beloved fighting trio in the film — mourned Tenesi as a “good guy gone too soon.”“RIP Guido Tenesi “Prett...