When Mike Butters is off the ice, he's on screen - on ice

First, there will be a stare.

Then, a pensive, searching expression.

And finally, the question:

"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

"I get that all the time," said Mike Butters, general manager of the Norfolk Admirals.

Then the fun begins:

"I'll go, 'Maybe you saw me in that Snickers commercial.' And they'll say, 'No, that's not it.'"

"EA Sports?"

"Uh-uh."

"Ocean Spray?"

"Nope."

"This will go on for a while," Butters said with a laugh. "Finally, after about the 10th or 12th thing, they'll go, 'Oh, yeah! You're that guy!"

Fact is, over the past 15 years, on stage and on screens large and small, Butters has been all kinds of guys, from cereal eater to serial rapist.

Now, no one's going to confuse Butters with Brad Pitt - most of his roles are of the generic variety: cop, prison guard, construction worker, jolly dad. But there are worse things than being a stalwart of Central Casting. Butters' credits include some 40 movie roles, nearly 100 commercials and a couple of dozen spots in TV shows.

So odds are, even if you've never ventured anywhere near Scope for an Admirals hockey game, you've probably seen him.

You just didn't know it.

He's appearing in the slasher film "Saw V," the latest installment in what Butters calls the thinking-man's horror franchise.

Butters proudly notes he was the first person to die in the original "Saw" - his character, Paul, was slashed to death in a razor wire maze.

In classic horror movie tradition, this hasn't stopped Butters from re-appearing in each and every one of the sequels.

"Yeah, the naked, chubby guy," Admirals fan Jonathan Hubble said. "That's our GM."

Butters will stress he's first and foremost a hockey man - in his playing days, one of the most rugged - and he has got the nose to prove it. It has been broken 23 times.

At 6-foo t-3, 255 pounds, the 42-year-old Butters still exudes a hulking, almost menacing presence, just as he did when he was a hated "goon" with the rival Greensboro Monarchs back in the days of the East Coast Hockey League.

Perhaps mindful of his enemy past, some Admirals fans have been slow to warm to him. They consider him aloof and brooding; although to be fair, if your team struggled the way the Admirals have in the early part of this season, you might brood, too.

But underneath the tough-guy exterior, this hockey guy is all ham. Always has been, even when Scope fans were booing him unmercifully for a random act of mayhem on the ice.

"I took it as a compliment," Butters said. "When people booed, it was like a standing ovation to me."

When his playing days ended during the 1990s, Butters moved to Los Angeles and honed his improvisational comedy skills with the LA Connection, a show in the style of the Drew Carey hit "Who's Line is it Anyway?"

"Buttsie makes me laugh harder than anyone I know, and I'm a comedian," said former "Full House" star Dave Coulier, a long-time friend and the godfather to Butters' two daughters. "He's just a funny, funny guy."

Still, even the funniest actors will starve without getting a break, and Butters got a huge one when hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. Hockey quickly became the in-thing in Hollywood, and casting directors set out to infuse plot and storylines with actors that looked like hockey players.

Few people look more like a hockey player than Butters. Before long, people across the country were watching Butters wolf down a Snickers, take a body check for EA sports and trade lines with Bobby Orr.

All the while, Butters was cashing in. In addition to $20,000-$60,000 flat fees per national spot, Butters said he also would receive a residual check each time a commercial aired

"For a while there, every day I went to the mailbox, it was like Christmas," said Butters, who at one point during the 1990s had 12-15 national commercials airing simultaneously.

Butters began turning up in shows like "Beverly Hills 90210," "The New Mickey Mouse Club" and "America's Most Wanted," where his performance as a guy who was a car thief wound up being a bit too convincing.

"I went to the grocery story and the next thing I know six cop cars pulled up and the police had me on my knees, cuffed, with their guns drawn," Butters said. "Turns out I looked just like the guy who committed grand theft auto."

Butters also worked hard to bring authenticity to his rare lead role, when he was cast as the serial rapist who murdered 11 prostitutes in the movie "Mr. Soul."

"It was based on a real guy, and I went to the jail and met his cell mates," Butters said. "And I took trips with undercover cops. That's my proudest project."

For all of his screen time, though, Butters insists acting is and always has been a side project, that hockey remains his main gig. Several years ago, Butters became a co-owner of the Helena (Mont.) Bighorns, a junior hockey team, and restricted his acting pursuits to the offseason.

The same is true now that he's in his first year as the full-time GM in Norfolk. Butters considers restoring the Admirals to past glory his most important - and perhaps most challenging - role yet.

"Nothing will ever fill the void of being a player on the ice holding up a championship trophy," Butters said. "Next is being a coach. Then a manager.

"Only then comes winning an Academy Award."

Paul White, (757) 418-1447 paul.white@pilotonline.com