NAMES IN THE NEWS : Stockwell Gives Credit to Lynch

Dean Stockwell, who dropped out of the public eye at age 15 after appearing on Broadway and in several movies, found nobody wanted him when he was ready to drop back in--until he ran into David Lynch.

And Lynch, co-producer of ABC’s “Twin Peaks,” told TV Guide in its June 9 issue that he had presumed Stockwell was dead.

Now Stockwell’s career is very much alive. He won a Golden Globe award for his work on NBC’s “Quantum Leap.”

Stockwell, 54, first acted professionally at 6 in a Broadway play and was signed to a seven-year MGM contract. He made several films, including “The Boy with Green Hair.”

But he hated the attention and at age 15 dropped out “to become anonymous, to disappear,” Stockwell said. When he tried to make a comeback, “I couldn’t get work for a long, long time,” he said.

Then Lynch ran into him in Mexico City while working on a movie.

“This person looked familiar, but (I told myself) it couldn’t be who I thought it was, and it made me feel a little nutty,” Lynch said. “Then I realized it was Dean, and he was alive.”

Lynch eventually cast Stockwell in the movie “Dune” and later in “Blue Velvet.”