"Not-So-Elusive"

by John M. Wilson

The Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1987

 

Dean Stockwell continues to give his buddy Dennis Hopper stiff competition as comeback actor of the decade.  At press time, we got word that Stockwell's just been signed by Francis Coppola to appear as Howard Hughes in Tucker, to begin shooting in a few days.

 

This follows stints in Gardens of Stone, also from Coppola (due out May 8), Beverly Hills Cop II (May 20) and an Aussie pic, Time Guardians, in the can.  And he's "weighing other things."

 

In Tucker, Stockwell joins star Jeff Bridges, who plays a real-life inventor whose revolutionary devices were suppressed by an auto industry unwilling to make costly changes.  (Jeff's father, Lloyd, will play an antagonistic politician.)

 

Hughes will be portrayed circa 1946 ("They haven't decided yet whether to use the real Spruce Goose or Lucasfilm technology"), when he had a "sympatico relationship" with Tucker.

 

Stockwell, once a child star, was raising a family in relative obscurity in New Mexico when director David Lynch cast him in Dune and Wim Wenders gave him a bigger role Paris, Texas.  Lynch later put him in Blue Velvet and wants him for Ronnie Rocket (now on hold).

 

All the work, said the laconic actor, "Feels good."

 

The End