Dean Stockwell of 'Quantum Leap,' 'Blue Velvet' dies at 85

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JAKE COYLE

NEW YORK (AP) — Dean Stockwell, a top Hollywood child actor who gained new success in middle age in the sci-fi series “Quantum Leap” and in a string of indelible performances in film, including David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” Wim Wenders’ “Paris, Texas” and Jonathan Demme’s “Married to the Mob,” has died. He was 85.

Jay Schwartz, a family spokesperson, said Stockwell died of natural causes at home Sunday.

Stockwell was Oscar-nominated for his comic mafia kingpin in “Married to the Mob” and was four times an Emmy-nominee for “Quantum Leap.” But in a career that spanned seven decades, Stockwell was a supreme character actor whose performances — lip-syncing Roy Orbison in a nightmarish party scene in “Blue Velvet,” a desperate agent in Robert Altman’s “The Player,” Howard Hughes in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” — didn’t have to be lengthy to be mesmerizing.

Stockwell’s own relationship with acting, having started on Broadway at age 7, was complicated. In a peripatetic career, he quit show business several times, including at age 16 and again in the 1980s, when he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to sell real estate.



FILE - Actor Dean Stockwell poses in Feb 1989 at an unknown location. Stockwell, a top Hollywood child actor who gained new success in middle age, garnering an Oscar nomination for “Married to the Mob” and Emmy nominations for “Quantum Leap,” died of natural causes at his home on Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. He was 85. (AP Photo/Alan Greth, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-wim-wenders-jonathan-demme-david-lynch-francis-ford-coppola-7d53d07066723f989ae8974b59f84bb4

[ColinC]

1. He was great in quantum leap!

Great actor, may he rest in peace...

[Phoenix61]

8. Yes he was especially in episode MIA April 1969. nt

[GPV]

2. I loved him, esp as Al.

[PJMcK]

3. Star Trek: Enterprise

There’s a fun episode of this “prequel” with Mr. Stockton re-teaming with series star Scott Bakula.

RIP, sir.

[Binkie The Clown]

4. Back in the 60s or 70s I saw his brother Guy play Hamet live in L.A. He played it on a crutch.

Before the play started the theater manager came out and announced that Mr. Stockwell had broken his ankle the evening before and would play Hamlet on a crutch, and that anyone who wanted a refund rather than watch the performance could leave. It was a packed house, and everybody stayed.

A very talented family.

[dchill]

5. A great actor.

[Bayard]

6. Oh no!

Quantum Leap is a favorite, and he was great in it.

[AnrothElf]

7. Noooooo... so sad

I had a bookstore in Taos, NM across the street from Dennis Hopper's home in the old Ranchos theater where Easy Rider was screened. Hopper came in a few times, but Dean came in 7 days a week (if he was in town) with his ubiquitous cigar to buy the New York Times. Every single day, until the day I closed. He also liked to mine the cookbooks, weird old how-to's and anything else illustrated for his collage artwork.

Just a little window into the life of a kind, creative soul

[Phoenix61]

9. Thanks for sharing.

I enjoy learning someone I admire is a pretty cool person.

[PSPS]

10. The Secret Garden

The earliest performance I can remember him in was when he was 13 in 1949's "The Secret Garden." And he was great in "Paris, Texas" but any Wim Wenders film is good.

Here's a TCM interview from 1995: