Scott Bakula

Scott Stewart Bakula, born October 9, 1954, in St. Louis, Missouri, is an American actor whose career has spanned Broadway, television, and film. The son of Sally (née Zumwinkel) and Joseph Stewart Bakula, a lawyer, he grew up with a younger brother and a younger sister. He attended Jefferson College and later the University of Kansas before leaving to pursue a professional acting career, relocating to New York City in 1976.

Bakula's professional stage career began in 1977 with a national tour of the musical Shenandoah. His Broadway debut came in 1982, when he joined the short-lived production Is There Life After High School? as an understudy. The following year, he portrayed baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable, a production that closed after only 17 performances. In 1985, he earned a shared Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble Acting for the Off-Broadway production of Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down, a show he later reprised at the Pasadena Playhouse. That production's success drew wider attention to Bakula, and when the musical Nightclub Confidential, which co-starred his wife Krista Neumann, moved to Los Angeles, he relocated there at the encouragement of his agents. He arrived in California on New Year's Day, 1986.

During a Hollywood writers' strike in 1988, Bakula returned to New York to star in Romance/Romance on Broadway, which ran from May 1, 1988, to January 15, 1989. Playing the dual roles of Alfred Von Wilmers and Sam, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. His Broadway work between 1977 and 1988 also included credits in My Romance and Shenandoah.

Following his Broadway run, Bakula was cast opposite Dean Stockwell in the science fiction television series Quantum Leap, which aired from 1989 to 1993. His portrayal of time traveler Dr. Sam Beckett earned him a Golden Globe Award, three additional Golden Globe nominations, four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and five consecutive Viewers for Quality Television Awards for Best Actor in a Quality Drama Series. From 1993 to 1995, he played reporter Peter Hunt on the sitcom Murphy Brown. He voiced Danny Cat in the 1997 animated film Cats Don't Dance and portrayed aging pitcher Gus Cantrell in Major League: Back to the Minors in 1998. In 1999, he appeared in American Beauty as Jim Olmeyer, the same-sex partner of Sam Robards' character.

From 2001 to 2005, Bakula starred as Captain Jonathan Archer, commander of Earth's first Warp 5 interstellar starship, on Star Trek: Enterprise. He reprised the role in voice-over work for the Star Trek: Legacy video game in 2006. That same year, he starred in a production of Shenandoah at Ford's Theatre, returning to the musical that had launched his professional career three decades earlier. On January 18, 2008, he gave a one-night benefit performance titled An Evening with Scott Bakula at Sidney Harman Hall, raising funds for the restoration of Ford's Theatre. Also in 2008, he starred as Tony Hunter in the world premiere of Dancing in the Dark, based on the 1953 film The Band Wagon, at The Old Globe in San Diego. He appeared in the dark comedy film The Informant! in 2009 as FBI agent Brian Shepard, and from July 31 to August 2 of that year, he played Nathan Detroit in three performances of Guys and Dolls at the Hollywood Bowl.

Beginning in December 2009, Bakula took on one of three lead roles in TNT's Men of a Certain Age, a comedy-drama series. He began a recurring role on NBC's Chuck in April 2009, playing Stephen J. Bartowski, the title character's long-lost father, appearing in the show's second and third seasons. From 2014 to 2015, he played entrepreneur Lynn on the HBO series Looking. Beginning in 2014 and continuing through 2021, he portrayed Special Agent Dwayne Cassius "King" Pride on NCIS: New Orleans. Bakula also contributed his voice to Sandra Boynton's children's CD Philadelphia Chickens, performing the song "Pig Island."