RIP DEAN STOCKWELL

1936-2021

Robert Dean Stockwell was a film and television actor with a career spanning over 70 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM, he first came to the public’s attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh (1945), The Green Years (1946), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), and Kim (1950). 

He was an uncredited extra in Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), in which Lucille Ball had a cameo role as herself. Stockwell was ten years old. 

“I started at a very early age in this business and I’m sure most of you have read stories about people who have started as children and ended up in very difficult lives and bad consequences. It’s not the easiest life in the world, but then no life is easy.“

In 1963, he appeared in an episode of Desilu’s “The Greatest Show on Earth”. The following week, Lucille Ball herself did a guest appearance on the show.

In late 1967, Stockwell was back at Desilu Studios to film an episode of “The Danny Thomas Hour.” 

In 1989 his career had a resurgence on television in “Quantum Leap”, for which he was nominated for four Emmy Awards.

That same year, he was nominated for an Oscar for his work in the film Married to the Mob.  As a nominee, he attended the 1989 Oscar Ceremony, Lucille Ball’s last public appearance before her death. 

Stockwell died of natural causes on November 7, 2021, at age of 85.