Scott Stewart Bakula (born October 9, 1954) is an American actor most prominently known for his roles as Dr. Samuel Beckett on Quantum Leap and Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise. He has also appeared in numerous film and television roles, including Lord of Illusions, Major League 3: Back to the Minors and a recurring guest role on the television sit-com Murphy Brown. He recently played as Dwayne "King" Pride in CBS procedural series NCIS: New Orleans from 2014 to 2021.
Early life[]
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Scott is the son of Stewart, a lawyer, and Sally Bakula. He has a younger brother and a younger sister.[1] Scott and his family moved to Kirkwood in the third grade. Once enrolled in Keysor Elementary, his life was forever changed. Scott recalls: "When I was [at] Keysor Elementary School, the music teacher asked me to audition to sing with the St. Louis Symphony choir, and that led me to sing with the choir at her church, First Presbyterian Church in Kirkwood. Those experiences started me on the road to musical-theater work, which eventually led me to New York."
He later attended Kirkwood High School where he preformed in every play he able to and is inarguably the most famous of their alumni.
[During high school], he says, "...since I had a rock band, I spent lots of time in people’s basements, which is something everybody has in St. Louis; we don’t have them in L.A.[2]
Scott's yearbook photo.[1]
Scott attended college for a time, but dropped out, as he recalls:
"...because I was offered a tour of Godspell, a national tour that was from St. Louis. I thought that sounded great and I went to my parents and I said I want to do this tour and they said go ahead, maybe it will get it out of your system. And you come back to school in a year or two, you come back. The tour was gonna start in August and the tour never started and school did, and then the tour fell apart and there I was sitting at home. So I was left holding the bag, basically, and then had to decide where to go from there. And I applied, was applying to other schools, I was gonna go to a Mormon theatrical kind of school and the more I looked at it more I spent time examining the school side of it. I just realized what I really needed to do was just pick up, pack up and go to New York."
Bakula moved to New York City in 1976. There he made his Broadway debut playing baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable, and appeared in the well-received Off-Broadway production Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down; he would later in its Pasadena Playhouse production.[3] The success of Three Guys Off-Broadway brought him attention, and when his next show, the musical Nightclub Confidential, moved to Los Angeles, he moved there at the urging of his California agent, Maggie Henderson, and his New York agent, Jerry Hogan. As Bakula recalled in 2000:
"I call (Henderson) up and said I got a show, I'm gonna be out there, I'm coming out in January. So it'll work out because it's time for pilot season and I'll be doing something so people can come and see me. ... And then I coincidentally had done a Disney Sunday Night ABC movie that was gonna come out some time in the winter. It was the time to go. Came out here on New Year's Day, 1986. The show I did turned out to be a big hit out here. It got me a lot of attention out here and I jumped onto the TV sitcom Designing Women in the beginning and was able to do that pilot ... and things kind of took off."
Television career[]
Scott's television debut had come in commercials for Canada Dry and for decaffeinated Folgers coffee, and now was cast in two short-lived series Gung Ho and Eisenhower & Lutz. During a Hollywood writers' strike, he returned to New York to star in the play Romance / Romance, and then afterward landed the lead role opposite co-star Dean Stockwell in Quantum Leap. He played time traveler Dr. Sam Beckett, who was trapped by a malfunction of his time machine to correct things gone wrong in the past.[5] His performance in this program would earn him a Golden Globe award (along with three nominations) and four Emmy nominations for Best Actor as well as five consecutive Viewers For Quality Television Awards for Best Actor in a Quality Drama Series.
Personal life[]
Scott married Krista Neumann in 1981; they divorced in 1995. The couple have two children: Chelsy or Chelsea (sources differ as per spelling) and Cody. He and actress Chelsea Field have been companions since 1996 and have two children, Wil Botfield and Owen Barrett.
Scott is an avid Saint Louis Cardinals fan and admits to pining for his hometown, "What do I miss most about St. Louis, besides family? Cardinals games. Even though I was in London through this whole crazy playoff run and the World Series, I stayed up and watched the box scores update every few minutes on my iPad."[2]
Scott Bakula's mustache[]
Although Sam Beckett is not known to be mustachioed, Scott himself is known to enjoy a good lip rug now and again.
References[]
- ↑ Complete, Unexpurgated Transcript of the Scott Bakula Interview from the SCI FI Program Sciographpy: Quantum Leap. Quantum Leap official site (Sci Fi Channel) (August 13, 2000). Archived from the original on July 14, 2006.
- ↑ St. Louis Hometown Stories - Scott Bakula at St. Louis Magazine (stlmag.com) website
- ↑ Scott Bakula Biography. Archival Universal Television official biography via Quantum Leap official site (Sci Fi Channel). Archived from the original on July 12, 2006.
- ↑ "Complete, Unexpurgated Transcript", p. 3
- ↑ O'Connor, John J.. "Review/Television; An Actor's 'Quantum Leap' Through Times and Roles", The New York Times, November 22, 1989. Retrieved on 2010-08-12.
Filmography[]
Television[]
- -My Sister Sam (1 episode, 1986)
- Designing Women (TV series, 1986–1988)
- Matlock (2 episodes, 1987)
- Quantum Leap (TV series, 1989–1993)
- Murphy Brown (TV series, 14 episodes, 1994–1996)
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith (TV series, 13 episodes, 1996)
- Enterprise (later, Star Trek: Enterprise) (2001–2005)
- The New Adventures of Old Christine (2 episodes, 2006)
- American Body Shop (1 episode, 2007)
- Boston Legal (1 episode, 2008)
- State of the Union (5 episodes, 2008)
- Chuck (4 episodes, 2009)
- The New Adventures of Old Christine (1 episode, 2009)
- Men of a Certain Age (2009)
- NCIS (2 episodes, 2014)
- NCIS: New Orleans (2014–21)
Films[]
- I-Man (1986)
- Gung Ho (1986)
- Eisenhowerand Lutz (1988)
- Sibling Rivalry (1990)
- Necessary Roughness (1991)
- Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 (1993)
- Color of Night (1994)
- The Invaders (1995)
- Lord of Illusions (1995)
- The Bachelor's Baby (1996)
- Cats Don't Dance (1997)
- Major League: Back to the Minors (1998)
- Net Force (1999)
- American Beauty (1999)
- Above Suspicion (2000)
- Life as a House (2001)
- What Girls Learn (2001)
- Papa's Angels (2003)
- Blue Smoke (2007)
- The Informant (2009)
External links[]
- Scott Bakula article at Wikipedia
- All New Interview with Scott Bakula at Quantum Leap Podcast