Variety reports that Dean Stockwell, a long-time actor, died Sunday at his home. Stockwell was 85 years old, and his career spanned seven decades.
Advertisement
Stockwell is a great example of a child actor who has lasted his career for many decades. He avoided the "awkward period" that plagued so much of his peers as they moved into adulthood. Stockwell began his career in 1940s classics such as Anchors Aweigh, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. He also won the 1947 Best Picture award Gentlemen's Agreement and Song Of The Thin Man. He played the role of Nora Charles, the son of a glamorous detective couple. He was also the role of The Boy With The Green Hair, an anti-racism parable.
Stockwell was a young adult when he began to excel in acting. He played the role of an adolescent murderer in Compulsion, a fictionalized dramatization about the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder case. Orson Welles was his lawyer. Along with Katharine Shepburn and Jason Robards, he joined the intimidating cast of the film version of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.
Stockwell had a few roles that were memorable but there were many. His IMDB page lists more than 200 credits. Stockwell worked hard throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He was a guest star on several shows including Dr. Kildare's Wagon Train, Dr. Kildare's Cannon and Mission: Impossible. (He also appeared in the Twilight Zone's 1950 and 1980 versions). For a brief time, he left show business to spend more time with his friends in California's hippie culture. Stockwell also wrote an unproduced screenplay entitled After The Gold Rush. Young was reportedly inspired by it to create the song and album. Stockwell also designed Young's distinctive cover for American Stars 'N Barrs in 1977.
Stockwell returned to film in the 1980s, playing memorable roles in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas and Dune films. He also played Doctor Wellington Yueh in Wim Wenders’ Blue Velvet. Stockwell rode this momentum to his Oscar nomination as Tony "Tiger" Russo, a mobster in Jonathan Demme’s Married To The Mob. (Typical of Stockwell’s impressive work ethic, Stockwell also appeared in a Murder, She Wrote episode that same year).
Stockwell was nominated for an Oscar. Then came Stockwell's most memorable role, Admiral Al Calavicci from the sci-fi series Quantum Leap. Al, a cigar-smoking hologram, was a part of "leaper Sam Beckett" (Scott Bakula), during his time-traveling adventures. Stockwell won once, despite Hopper's advice to him not to take the role. Stockwell was nominated four times for Emmys and four Golden Globes. Stockwell's many QL fans helped him get the star on Hollywood Boulevard. This was appropriately on Leap Day 1992. Stockwell and Bakula reunited on Star Trek: Enterprise in 2002.
Stockwell was back on the guest-star circuit after QL. He also played a recurring part as Senator Edward Sheffield in JAG, until his next career peak, which was also in sci-fi: Battlestar Galactica. Stockwell played John Cavil who was Number One among the 12 human-resembling Cylon models. Stockwell could play multiple versions of the same character.
Stockwell was twice married to Millie Perkins, The Diary Of Anne Frank actress, in 1960 and 1962. He also married Joy Marchenko, who he had with Joy Marchenko from 1981 to 2004. They had two children. Both of their marriages ended in divorce.
Stockwell's film and TV appearances declined after Galactica ended in 2009. One of his last roles was on NCIS in 2014. This episode took place almost 70 years after Stockwell made his film debut in 1945.
