Dean Stockwell: 2011 AFF Dennis Lee Hopper Award Recipient

We are honored to welcome Mr. Dean Stockwell to the 2011 Albuquerque Film Festival. Mr. Stockwell is the recipient of the 2011 AFF Dennis Lee Hopper Award and will be honored at the Closing Night Award’s Ceremony on Sunday, August 21st at 8:00pm. Tickets are $40. Click here to purchase tickets.

Mr. Stockwell will be presenting MARRIED TO THE MOB for which he was nominated an Academy Award, on Saturday, August 20th at 3pm at The Guild Cinema.

From the moment Dean Stockwell dutifully recited “I won’t be damned” on the Broadway stage in 1943, he set in motion a chain of events over which he had very little control.

At the tender age of seven, Dean began his professional acting career. He made 19 films in seven years, many of which are still watchable after all this time.  But this clever and intelligent boy yearned for a life outside of the imposing MGM studio gates.

Graduating school at the age of 16 and enrolling at Berkeley, Dean dropped out during the second semester and proceeded to live a low-key life. So low-key, in fact, that the next three years were to be known as Dean’s “Lost Years.”

In 1956 Dean returned to acting, working on live television in New York City.  By 1957, he was back in Hollywood and quickly became a darling of the teenage fans who were yearning for a replacement for the tragically deceased James Dean.  Stockwell rode a wave of popularity as he portrayed misunderstood and angst-ridden youths in countless TV appearances and films.  His roles in COMPULSION (1959) and LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (1962) were award-winning.  Also during this time he courted, married and divorced a quirky and charming young actress named Millie Perkins.

The remainder of the Sixties would find Dean again making frequent TV appearances on popular shows of the day, but his professional career did not seem to have the same energy as before.  However, reading a list of Dean’s film credits does not tell the whole story.

An actor may be known by his career, but a man is known by his life. Dean’s life is so full that it overflows the boundaries of a short biographical sketch.  As far back as 1957, Dean began to associate with revolutionary artists, poets and musicians. His name is inextricably linked with the Beat Generation.  He may not have been appearing in blockbuster movies, but he had other outlets for artistic self-expression.

With the dawn of the 1980′s, a change was in the air.  Major life decisions were made, and at the age of 45, Dean married for the second time and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to retire from show business and raise a family.  But the Fates intervened, and Dean found himself still doing the occasional acting gig.  Small but memorable roles in DUNE (1984), PARIS, TEXAS (1984) and BLUE VELVET (1986) led to his Academy Award-nominated performance in MARRIED TO THE MOB (1988).  Suddenly Dean Stockwell was new again.

To everything there is a season, and the season for Dean Stockwell turned out to be his incredibly popular performance as the co-star of a TV show called QUANTUM LEAP (1989 – 1993). A new generation of fans became ttracted to this charismatic middle-aged man.

QUANTUM LEAP ended ten years ago, but Dean has never stopped working.

Courtesy of Jill Jackson
http://stockwellsassies.tripod.com/