A QUANTUM LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN: DEAN STOCKWELL by Howard Maxford
Dean Stockwell first appeared on the big screen when he was just seven years old, in THE VALLEY OF DECISION (1945). A year later he appeared with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in the classic ANCHORS AWEIGH. He first encountered the 'fringes' of Fantasy when he played the lead role in THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948).
A child actor's career is usually a short one, with very few making the transition to adult roles. Neither Shirley Temple nor Freddie Bartholomew, both huge stars in the 1930's, succeeded as adults. Stockwell was one of the exceptions, however, and went on to mature in films such as COMPULSION and SONS AND LOVERS, whilst today he is regarded as one of America's top character actors. Generally seen in quirky, off-beat roles, his recent successes have included DUNE, BLUE VELVET (both for David Lynch) and MARRIED TO THE MOB, for which he received an Oscar nomination.
His career has recently taken another step forward with the new Time Travel series QUANTUM LEAP, in which he co-stars with Scott Bakula. However, the big screen success of MARRIED TO THE MOB (in which Stockwell played the ruthless mobster Tony 'The Tiger' Russo) meant that it too was being developed for television at the same time as QUANTUM LEAP, and Stockwell was asked to reprise this mobster role. Fortunately he turned it down in favour of QUANTUM LEAP, which went on to become a hit AND win him a Golden Globe award, whilst MARRIED TO THE MOB was a disaster in the ratings and was quickly canceled.
So what attracted him to the series?
"The concept and the writing of the pilot sold itself to me," he told me in a break during the filming of a further episode. "Plus the track record of the producer, Donald P. Bellisario, who had produced and created MAGNUM, AIRWOLF and TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY - all of them good shows. Also the fact that it was going to be on the number one network (NBC) had something to do with it...It's a whole new door into the world of television that's opened for me, and now I won this award already, so I feel pretty secure. I have a lot of respect for doing this type of show. I don't feel it's any less an endeavour than doing a feature...And I have two children, a four-year-old and a six-year-old, and when I do films, nine times out of ten they're out of town or even out of the country. My wife doesn't like to fly the kids, so that leaves me months apart from them and I don't like that. Doing the series I at least see them at night and at the weekends."
However, despite the show's Time traveling angle, Stockwell sees it as more as a Drama series. In it, an experiment goes wrong and scientist Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) finds himself traveling hrough Time, but not in the normal sense.
"He takes a PERSON's place each time in a different situation and a different time period and with a different cast," he explains. "The audience still sees HIM, but if he looks in a mirror the reflection is that of a person he's taken the place of. And the people around him still see that person. When you see the show, you'll realize that it's less Science Fiction and more Drama. What it is in effect is an anthology show with two running characters. The device of the Time travel allows that to happen. It's really stories about people and their problems - and we get into social problems, too. In one episode Sam finds himself in the body of a WOMAN in the 60's before the feminist movement and he helps to show other women how they can stand up for themselves. In another episode, he plays a black man in 1955 in Alabama and helps to break into the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement. So the Science Fiction aspect of it is quite minor."
In the show, Stockwell plays Sam's colleague, Albert, who, whilst 'trapped' in the Future, is seen only by Sam. Says Stockwell of his character: "I APPEAR as a solid person when you look at the show, but if anything contacts me it goes through me. Likewise I can walk through a wall and stuff like that. I am said to be a hologram. In other words, the device of the hologram allows me to go back in Time to help out my buddy who's lost in Time."
But, as the actor points out, Albert is frequently more of a hindrance than a help, preferring to drink and carouse his way through Time. "He doesn't booze THAT much - it's mostly the women! He's definitely a bit of a lech, as we'd call it. He's in the present tense, which we call the Present Future, so that we don't ever catch up with it. He's a physicist and a former astronaut, so he has quite an extensive background. He and this other fellow, Sam, have developed this project, and Sam embarks on it before it's ready, and that's how he comes to get stranded in Time. When my character goes into the Past it's almost like a release of other dimensions of personality, because there's no one else there except for this one guy."
And what of the effects processes?
"We use the blue screen for any time I have to pass through something or something passes through me. We also have some other effects. I appear and disappear at times by going through a doorway which is fashioned out of light, which leads back to the energy chamber. That's a different type of effect, and it looks very nice, actually."
After the pilot, eleven episodes of the series were made and screened and because of their success, a further fourteen were commissioned. Because of its perfomance in the ratings, Stockwell subsequently predicts that it could become a long-runner. "If the series is picked up, and there's a good chance it WILL because it's doing pretty well, then we'll start filming again in July and do another twenty-two. So I could be involved in doing this for the next few years. Also my agent is looking for a feature for me to do in April. I don't know what it'll be yet, but I'll be doing another feature or a television movie. I have to stay active. I'm not just going to take a vacation.!"
(Dean Stockwell's next screen appearance in the UK wil be in LIMIT UP, released June 22nd [1990]. )
