American actor Dean Stockwell died on November 7 at the age of 85. To the general public he was Admiral Al Calavicci of the “Quantum Code” series, but had started his career much earlier as a child star.
Child of the ball, Dean Stockwell fell very small in the cinematographic potion while making his first films at the age of nine years. From The Valley of Judgment (1945, Tay Garnett) and Escale à Hollywood (1945, George Sidney), his face and his photogenic nature imposed him as a new child star.
Winning a Special Interpretation Award at the 1948 Golden Globes for Elia Kazan’s The Invisible Wall, that same year for Joseph Losey, The Boy with Green Hair remains his most important role.
RKO Radio Pictures
In “The Boy with Green Hair”
Deciding to leave Hollywood as a teenager, Dean Stockwell reappears on Broadway in The Genius of Evil, and reprise his role as a murderous student in Richard Fleischer’s 1959 film adaptation.
Very noticed in this tormented child’s register, he followed with Amants et fils (1960, Jack Cardiff) then Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962, Sidney Lumet), before deserting the sets again.
After disappointing 70s, the following decade offered Dean Stockwell quality supporting roles in David Lynch (Dune in 1984, Blue velvet in 1986), Wim Wenders (1984, Paris, Texas) or even Francis F. Coppola (1988, Tucker).
But it was as a mobster in love with Michelle Pfeiffer in the comedy Widow but not too much with Jonathan Demme that he obtained his first Oscar nomination in 1989.
Admiral Al Calavicci
NBC
In “Quantum Code”
However, it was thanks to the small screen that he gained wide popularity in the 90s by playing the Al hologram in the Quantum Code series, for which he notably won the 1990 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Role.
Even if he has since favored television production, he continues to appear regularly in the cinema, for example Air Force One (1997, Wolfgang Petersen), The Idealist (1997, Francis F. Coppola) and CQ (2001, Roman Coppola).
We will see him again in 2014 alongside his sidekick from Quantum code Scott Bakula for one episode of NCIS: New Orleans and he will appear in fifteen episodes of Battlestar Galactica between 2006 and 2009.
