The next year he starred in another issue-oriented movie, Joseph Losey’s “The Boy With the Green Hair,” a parable about racism.Īnother classic in which he appeared while still a teen was MGM’s 1949 adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden,” in which Stockwell played the crippled Colin, starring with Margaret O’Brien, Herbert Marshall, Gladys Cooper and Elsa Lanchester. In 1947 he reunited with Peck in the classic, Elia Kazan-directed screed against anti-Semitism, “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” playing Peck’s son, who is ridiculed when others (mistakenly) think he’s Jewish. MGM signed the adorable Dean to a contract, and he made his first film appearances in Greer Garson-Gregory Peck drama “The Valley of Decision” and Frank Sinatra-Gene Kelly musical “Anchors Aweigh,” both in 1945, when he was 9. Dean and his older brother Guy, also an actor, made their Broadway debuts in 1943 in “The Innocent Voyage.” Robert Dean Stockwell was born in Los Angeles to actor-parents Nina Olivette and Harry Stockwell.
In 2013 Stockwell appeared in Jerry Lewis’ long-in-the-works return to film, the little-seen “Max Rose.” Stockwell recurred as a different kind of authority figure on the new “Battlestar Galactica” from 2006-09 as a Cylon known as Number One or John Cavil. Edward Sheffield, who becomes secretary of the Navy. On military courtroom drama “JAG” from 2002-04, Stockwell recurred in the role of Sen. Reviewing Harrison Ford actioner “Air Force One” (1997), the New York Times said, “Dean Stockwell has a brief, amusing turn as the overly ambitious secretary of defense.” Stockwell could play memorable oddballs or establishment figures with equal ease. In 1988, in the wake of Stockwell’s string of successes culminating in his work in “Married to the Mob” and his portrayal of Howard Hughes in Coppola’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream,” the New York Times ran a laudatory profile of the actor.ĭescribing his development from child actor to adult, the Times said, “The cherub seen scampering with a toe-tapping Gene Kelly in ‘Anchors Aweigh’ had turned into a dark, intense, charismatic leading man.” The actor was also known for his role in Wenders’ 1984 classic “Paris, Texas,” in which he played Walt Henderson, who offers quiet support to his brother, Harry Dean Stanton’s Travis Henderson. Yueh who, in Stockwell’s hands, became odd but sympathetic. Stockwell had first worked for Lynch in the director’s 1984 adaptation of “ Dune,” playing the treacherous Dr.
Among them was his bizarre turn in Lynch’s exploration of the dark netherworld that secretly lies beneath a nominally ordinary town in “Blue Velvet.” Here Dennis Hopper had the more shockingly brutal role, but Stockwell was more subtle in his creepiness as he lip-syncs to the Roy Orbison song “In Dreams.”ĭean Stockwell lip-syncs to “In Dreams” as Ben in David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.” - Credit: ©De Laurentiis Group/Courtesy E 29, 1992, the same year in which he played a disgruntled screenwriter in Robert Altman’s “The Player.”īut there were plenty of memorable performances for which Stockwell did not receive awards recognition. The role earned Stockwell four nominations for the Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe win in 1990 for “best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, miniseries or motion picture made for television.” Stockwell received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame on Feb. Sam Beckett, a physicist who engaged in space time experiments. The womanizing, larger than life character was the foil for Scott Bakula’s role as Dr.
One of Stockwell’s most memorable roles was as Admiral ‘Al’ Calavicci in NBC sci-series “Quantum Leap” which ran for five seasons between 19. He picked up a supporting-actor Oscar nomination for Demme’s 1988 Mafia comedy “Married to the Mob,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine, in which he played mob boss Tony “the Tiger” Russo, who was simultaneously chilling and amusing. Past Oscar Winners and Nominees Dominate Costume Design Race Marvel's 'Eternals' Racks Up $161.7 Million at Global Box Officeīox Office: 'Eternals' Soaring to $69.5 Million Opening Weekend The actor racked up an extraordinary 200 credits in a career that spanned seven decades, working with notable directors including Lynch, Jonathan Demme, Robert Altman, Wim Wenders, Sidney Lumet and Francis Ford Coppola. Dean Stockwell, who began his acting career as a child in Hollywood’s golden age and later performed memorably in David Lynch’s “ Blue Velvet” in the comedy “Married to the Mob,” for which he was Oscar nominated and on TV’s “ Quantum Leap,” for which he was Emmy nominated, died Sunday.