"One
on One with John Tesh" – December 3, 1991
[Clip from "Anchors Aweigh",
the part with Dean singing the title song]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "He made his film debut in 1945
in `Anchors
Aweigh', starring Frank Sinatra and
Gene Kelly."
[More of the clip]
[More clips from other movies including
"Kim" and "Secret Garden"]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "After his parents divorced, Dean
Stockwell
spent his childhood in front of the
camera, churning out film after
film while other children his age were
on playgrounds. What adoring
audiences didn't know was that he was
emotionally drained and falling
into deep depression as he was working.
[Clip from "The Boy with Green
Hair"]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "In 1948, Stockwell starred in
`The Boy with
Green Hair'. The film's anti-war
message touched off an uproar but
Stockwell survived the controversy.
Then as soon as he finished his
studio contract, he dropped out of the
business and wandered around
the country doing odd jobs for about 5
years."
[Clip from "Werewolf of
Washington"]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "When he decided to return to
Hollywood, he
had to take whatever roles he could get
just to make ends meet."
[Clip from "Paris, Texas"]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "Stockwell has dropped out a few
times, but
acting keeps drawing him back.
[Clip from "To Live and Die in
L.A."]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "When he could get acting jobs,
he took minor
roles in big movies. A shady lawyer in
`To Live and Die in L.A.'"
[Clip from "Beverly Hills Cop
II"]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "A thief in `Beverly Hills Cop
II'."
[Clip from "Married to the
Mob"]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "And the gangster Tony `the
Tiger' in `Married
to the Mob', for which he got his only
Academy Award nomination."
[Picture of Dean, Joy and their kids]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "Stockwell married Joy Marcheko
in 1982. They
have two children and live in Los
Angeles."
[Clip from "Quantum Leap"
intro]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "But it wasn't until he made a
`quantum leap'
into series television that Stockwell
found the stability he's been
looking for in his career."
[Dean and correspondent Sandy Newton in
a living room setting]
John Tesh [voiceover]: "Our correspondent, Sandy Newton
spoke with
him about his long struggle to find
peace of mind in Hollywood."
Sandy Newton: "We, of course, look at the films
of yours, the early
films, and we assumed you all have
these great, charmed lives and
were so happy, but you said you were
miserable."
Dean: "Anyone that had the experience I
did would agree that there
were inordinate pressures. There were
very few lines of work or
endeavors where children are permitted
to work today. Acting is one
of the very few…for some reason people
don't seem to realize that it
is work…and in those days we worked six
days a week. We worked
Saturdays, too."
Sandy: "And you did, I think, twenty-two
films in seven years?"
Dean: "I think I was at MGM for nine
years, and I think I did 16, 17
films…something like that."
Sandy: "That's a lot."
Dean: "Yeah, that's a lot, yeah."
Sandy: "But you said your mom was really
the one who kind of
stabilized you or sort of kept
you…"
Dean: "Yeah, she was great."
Sandy: "Did you ever go to her and say,
`mom, I want to quit.'"
Dean: "Yeah, I did and she…she was
dealing with a…a reality like
anyone else, and the reality was that
she was a single mother and I
was under contract. So there was,
legally speaking, there wasn't any
way out. So, there wasn't much she
could do. And she could just try
to make it the best as she could for
me. And she did."
Sandy: "In those days, the studios were
so powerful and so
controlling…
Dean: "Yes, I felt controlled. I was
aware that when I was going to
do a film, that that film was assigned
to me, and I had no choice.
And I didn't like that. And further
more, there was a process then
called `loaning' contract players,
where one studio would loan a
player to another studio to do their
movie and, then, of course, be
returned. It made me feel at a very
young age like a piece of meat
and I resented it and I was very…I
celebrated as…as…during that
period of time when the studio system
crumbled, in my little world, I
celebrated like the world is
celebrating over the fall of the Berlin
Wall and the Communist empire."
Sandy: "So you dropped out the first
time from Hollywood when you
were just a teenager, 16-years-old, you
had enough?"
Dean: "I understood that then I had
some decision making power in my
life and I could stop working if I
wish. The minute I graduated high
school, I stopped. And I went off by
myself because, for a number of
years, because I desperately needed
anonymity."
Sandy: "What did your mom think about
you leaving like that?"
Dean: "I think she realized it
that…that I had to do that."
Sandy: "She let you go with her
blessings?"
Dean: "Yeah…yeah."
Sandy: "So, what did you find on that
quest?"
Dean: "Well, I found out a lot of
things, that anonymity is a very
comfortable feeling and it's fine and
that it's also a pretty
difficult world to live in."
Sandy: "Were you a child of the
60's?"
Dean: "Well, I…became a beatnik and a
hippie."
Sandy: "Were you into drugs then"
Dean: "Well, I…I smoked some pot and I
tried, yeah, you know,
misbehaved, but, I mean it wasn't
anything that damaged my health and…
I had a pretty damn good time, to tell
you the truth. I mean, I had
a great time. In retrospect, it seems
to be, um, a type of living
child…childhood that perhaps because I
had been working I didn't
experience as fully as I might have
wanted to when I was in my real
childhood."
Sandy: "What made you decide to back to
Hollywood and try it again?"
Dean: "Well, it became clear after a
certain time that I…I didn't
have any training to go into any other
sort of career and couldn't
figure out anything else to do…that was
the one thing I knew how to
do."
Sandy: "Did you miss it, though because
it doesn't sound…"
Dean: "No, I didn't miss it, in fact I
went back into it with great
deal of trepidation, but,
then…that…when I got into my mid- late-30's
and 40's, that was resolved and I began
to enjoy it and began to
appreciate my own work…and of course,
that coincided right with the
time when I couldn't get any work.
Right, isn't that the way it
happens? Yeah, that coincided with a
very long, lean period of about
13, 12, 13 years, where as the saying
goes in this business, `I
couldn't get arrested.'"
Sandy: "Did you think that's because of
a stigma of having been a
child actor and you just thought…"
Dean: "No, I don't think so. No, I have
gone over this in my mind.
I have spent many, many, many, many,
many, many hours trying to
figure out the mystery of why I had
trouble finding work during that
period and, um, I have never been able
to figure it out. I even went
to people that I knew in the business
whether they were producers or
publicists, other actors, and I ask
them, `Why do I hear someone
say, `Oh I heard these producers say
that they were looking for a
Dean Stockwell-type', and I'm sitting
there on unemployment."
Sandy: "Now you've got a hit
series on the air. When you look over
your life, can you believe you are
here? Doing this now?"
Dean: "I always felt that I had a…a
unique ability and that given the
opportunity I could do well at it and
that I could be a relatively
happy individual. I always knew that
was a possibility. It seemed
like it would never happen, but I
always considered that it was a
possibility and it's happening so I can
believe it."
Sandy: "The environment is something
that you're very, very committed
to."
Dean: "Yes, now that the political
changes have been so dramatic in
the world and the so-called Communist
threat is dissipated so
dramatically, now's the time for our
leadership, in conjunction with
the leadership of the other major
nations of the world, to make the
priority the survival of the
planet."
Sandy: "How did you get so passionate
about the environment?"
Dean: "Well, by witnessing the
deterioration of the environment, of…
of the world, of where I live, of the
sky, of everything in my own
lifetime, that's happened in my
lifetime."
Sandy: "Being a father have anything to
do with it?"
Dean: "It has a great deal to do with
it, I mean it stimulates one to
action hopefully, to try to do
something about it so that the
children are inheriting a fit
environment to live in."
Sandy: "You're not going to disappear on
us again, are you?"
Dean: "I don't think so, I mean, I
don't want to, I'm not going…the
next time I drop out, I'll be dropping
dead."