Hollywood child actor Dean Stockwell who achieved new success in middle age in the popular sci-fi series “Quantum Leap” and a string of unforgettable performances in film, including David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” Jonathan Demme’s “Married to the Mob,” and Wim Wender’s “Paris, Texas”, has died at the age of 85.
The family spokesperson Jay Schwartz said He died at home on Sunday of natural cause.
Dean Stockwell, the Academy Award nominee and Oscar-nominated film star, had multiple careers in acting. At age seven, he started his career as a child actor; he worked alongside Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in Anchors Away. He had a star-making role in The Boy With Green Hair, the 1948 antiwar film by the time he was 11. The movie turned Dean into something of a star, and he felt ostracized. He said, ” I didn’t like it and wanted to leave”.
After he graduated from school at the age of 16, he changed his name and left Hollywood. However, he found his way back to Hollywood with Sidney Lumet’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night from 1962; this time, he worked majorly in television. During his 60s, he again dropped from Showbiz and later came back. However, this time, his way back was not easy.
During his 80s, Dean Stockwell changed his career; he ran an ad for himself in Variety as he got his real estate license in New Mexico. Instead, that led to a string of memorable movie roles in David Lynch’s Dune and Blue Velvet, Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, Robert Altman’s The Player and Jonathan Demme’s Married to the Mob—the last got him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
He was married to Joy Stockwell and has two children, Austin Stockwell and Sophie Stockwell.
His best-known role was Sci-fi series Quantum leap, which ran around five seasons.
