Dean Stockwell

American screen and stage actor with a career spanning over 70 years. He began as a child actor, the son of stage actors, he later became an adult actor of film and television. He was the star of the TV series Quantum Leap (1989-1993), then played Navy Secretary Edward Sheffield on JAG (2002–2004) and Brother Cavil on Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009).

Stockwell began his film career at age seven with MGM in The Innocent Voyage followed by the title roles in The Boy with Green Hair and The Secret Garden. He remained a popular child actor for years working for MGM. "For an adult, it's high pressure work, but it can be even worse for children because they're not allowed to be kids," he said, "Fortunately, I had a sensitive and loving mother. If it wasn't for her I probably wouldn't be here."

Nine years and 20 films later, he quit acting and spent his late teens traveling across country, working at a variety of jobs ranging from hammering railroad spikes to inspecting prunes. "I wasn't going anywhere, I had no other crafts or education, so I went back into show business." Stockwell made a successful comeback in the second phase of his career and appeared in five films from 1957 through 1962 including Compulsion (1959) and Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962).

During the swinging sixties Stockwell spent much of his time in Topanga Canyon with Jack Nicholson, Neil Young and Eric Clapton. "I dropped out and stopped calling my agent, but then I found it was difficult to drop back in."

Work came sporadically in the '70s with a career surge in the '80s in the films Dune and Paris, Texas, followed by that rare event in Hollywood, a second sensational comeback with his stunning performance in the 1986 film noir Blue Velvet, launching the third phase of his career. A string of films in the '90s include McHale's Navy, Restraining Order and Rites of Passage.

In 1989 he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Married to the Mob.