Hollywood star Dean Stockwell, best known for his role on the hit show “Quantum Leap,” has died. He was 85.
Stockwell’s agent, Jay Schwartz, said the TV star died of natural causes at his home Sunday, The Associated Press reported in a piece published Tuesday. There has been no official cause of death released. (RELATED: ‘The Office’ Star Mark York Dead At 55)
The actor got his big break first on Broadway in 1943 when he was cast in the play “The Innocent Voyage,” Variety magazine reported. (RELATED: 28-Year-Old ‘Wicked Tuna’ Star Dies Suddenly. Read The Details)
Dean Stockwell, ‘Quantum Leap’ Star, Dead at 85 https://t.co/BF2tjVWPKc
— Variety (@Variety) November 9, 2021
MGM later signed him, and he landed his first film on the big screen in 1945 in the Greer Garson-Gregory Peck drama “The Valley of Decision” and then the Frank Sinatra-Gene Kelly musical “Anchors Aweigh” at the age of 9.
He has some 200 credits for his work on both the big and small screen throughout his lengthy career. Some of those include his appearance in the 1986 crime drama “Blue Velvet,” his role in the 1988 hit “Married to the Mob,” for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and in 1997 with Harrison Ford in “Air Force One,” among many others.
The role he is probably best known for was Admiral “Al” Calavicci in the hit sci-fi NBC thriller “Quantum Leap,” which ran for five seasons between 1989 and 1993.
“My way of working is still the same as it was in the beginning — totally intuitive and instinctive,” Dean told The New York Times. “But as you live your life, you compile so many millions of experiences and bits of information that you become a richer vessel as a person. You draw on more experience.”
He is survived by his wife Joy and their two children.