Dean Stockwell, an Oscar, and Emmy nominee best known for his roles in the revolutionary science fiction show Quantum Leap and Battlestar Galactica, as well as David Lynch's noir-fever dream Blue Velvet, has died at the age of 85. The actor's death has been verified by Variety.
Stockwell's career began when he was a child and extended seven decades. Though he took a break from acting at times over his career, he was nonetheless a busy actor, appearing in everything from sci-fi and animated series to TV movies and critically acclaimed indie films.
Stockwell was born into a family of entertainers: his mother, Elizabeth Stockwell, was a vaudeville performer, and his father, Harry Stockwell, was a Broadway regular who had also voiced Prince Charming in Disney's Snow White. Stockwell made his acting debut just six years after his birth, with a brief cameo in the Broadway musical The Innocent Voyage. He secured a deal with MGM soon after, and in 1945 he had his first film appearances in The Valley of Decision and Anchors Aweigh, earning him a Golden Globe for Best Juvenile Actor for his performance in 1947's Gentleman's Agreement.
Stockwell returned to acting as he entered his 20s in the mid-Fifties, after a brief hiatus in his teens. For his role in Compulsion, a fictionalized version of the Leopold and Loeb murder trial, he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959. He received the same award three years later in Cannes for his performance in Sidney Lumet's film adaptation of Eugene O'Neil's Long Day's Journey Into Night.
Stockwell took a break from acting in the 1960s and moved to Topanga Canyon, just outside of Los Angeles, to join the expanding hippie population (he grew particularly close with Neil Young, and the pair would later co-direct the 1982 film, Human Highway). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he took another vacation from performing, this time to obtain his real estate license and work as a broker.
When Stockwell returned to acting, he went on one of his most illustrious periods. He co-starred in Wim Wenders' indie classic Paris, Texas in 1984, and in William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A. the following year.
He appeared in Blue Velvet and David Lynch's Dune adaption, as well as Robert Altman's The Player and Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob, for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
While Stockwell had a few minor TV appearances throughout his career, it wasn't until 1989's Quantum Leap that he got his first lead role in a series - and it was a smash hit to boot. In the program, Stockwell played Admiral Al Calavicci, Scott Bakula's time-traveling Dr. Sam Beckett's best friend and partner. Stockwell received four Emmy nominations and one Golden Globe Award for his role on Quantum Leap, which aired for five seasons.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Stockwell continued to work consistently, starring in blockbusters like Air Force One, serialized TV shows like JAG, and even the occasional animated show like Captain Planet and the Planeteers (he voiced Duke Nukem). He went on to star in another sci-fi smash, the critically acclaimed revival of Battlestar Galactica, in which he played John Cavil, the malevolent leader of the Cylons.
Stockton was asked what element of his career he was most proud of in a 1995 interview with Turner Classic Movies, and after a brief pause, he said, "I believe staying power." That I'm still doing it, that I'm still contributing, that I'm still able to produce after 52 years."
Dean Stockwell biography:
Robert Dean Stockwell (born March 5, 1936) is a retired American actor who has worked in film and television for almost 70 years. As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he made his name in films like Anchors Aweigh, The Green Years, Gentleman's Agreement, and Kim; as an adult, he starred in Meyer Levin's Compulsion, a novel based on the true-life story of Leopold and Loeb, on Broadway in 1957 and on the big screen in 1959.
Stockwell starred as Edmund Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's film adaptation of Long Day's Journey into Night in 1962. The next year, he appeared as a guest star in the Combat! episode "High Named Today."
He is best remembered for his appearances as Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci in the NBC-TV Universal series Quantum Leap (1989–1993) and Brother Cavil in the Sci Fi Channel 21st century version of Battlestar Galactica. For Married to the Mob, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (1988).
CAREER:
In 1945, alongside Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, Stockwell played one of the main characters (Donald Martin) in the musical film Anchors Aweigh. Other child roles include Robert Shannon in The Green Years (1946); Gregory Peck's son in Gentleman's Agreement (1947); Nick Charles, Jr. in Song of the Thin Man (1947); an orphaned runaway yearning to go to sea in Deep Waters (1948); and Lionel Barrymore's grandson and Richard Widmark's protege in Down to the Sea in Ships (1949). (1949).
In 1948, he played the lead in The Boy with Green Hair, and in 1949, he appeared in The Secret Garden. In 1950, he starred alongside Errol Flynn and Paul Lukas in the film Kim.
As an adult, he restarted his acting career. He played Judd Steiner in the Broadway adaptation of Compulsion, based on the Leopold and Loeb case, in 1957, and he reprised his role in the 1959 film adaptation. He shared the 1959 Cannes Film Award for Best Actor with his Compulsion co-stars Orson Welles and Bradford Dillman. Playhouse 90, Johnny Staccato, Buick-Electra Playhouse, and The Restless Gun were among Stockwell's many TV appearances.
In 1958, he appeared as a guest star alongside Gloria Talbott and Dan Blocker in the NBC western series The Restless Gun, starring John Payne, in the episode "Mercyday."
In 1960, he starred alongside Trevor Howard and Wendy Hiller in the British film Sons and Lovers as coal miner's son Paul Morel. In 1961, he acted alongside Marilyn Maxwell in the debut episode of ABC's Bus Stop series.
He starred alongside Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, and Jason Robards in a 1962 production of Eugene O'Neill's play Long Day's Journey Into Night. Stockwell appeared as a guest star on an episode of NBC's medical drama The Eleventh Hour in 1964.