Dean Stockwell could make an eccentric supporting part hard to forget, but we value his steadiness just as much. In Paris, Texas, he makes the people around a troubled man matter without competing for attention.
Fi1m perspective
In Paris, Texas (1984), Dean Stockwell's Walt makes it harder to excuse Travis simply because he is unhappy. Beside Aurore Clément's Anne, he keeps ordinary people's feelings in view while Wim Wenders follows Harry Dean Stanton's withdrawn drifter. We were moved by Stockwell's steadiness here, because it makes caring about Travis feel less simple. Walt deserves consideration too, and Stockwell does not have to turn him into an eccentric to get it.
Stockwell had been a child actor in The Boy with Green Hair (1948) and an adult lead in Compulsion (1959) and Long Day's Journey into Night (1962). Periods away from acting in the 1960s and 1970s came before the revival with Paris, Texas and Dune (1984). Further supporting parts followed in Blue Velvet (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). The later work interests us most, particularly the difference between Walt and the eccentric characters Stockwell was so often asked to play.
David Lynch uses him as the lip-syncing Ben in Blue Velvet, a memorable piece of oddness that need not define everything Stockwell can do. In Robert Altman's The Player (1992), he plays Andy Civella in a Hollywood satire whose assurance and humour we rate highly. The famous guests occasionally get more attention than the story needs, though, and recognition can become a distraction. That is a problem with the film's priorities, not grounds for blaming an individual supporting actor.
Stockwell said, “My way of working is still the same as it was in the beginning — totally intuitive and instinctive.” The description fits Walt, whose steadiness gives Stanton space while ensuring that the people around Travis still deserve our concern. Even when Wenders's patient pace asks too much, Stockwell gives us a reason to keep watching. Start with Paris, Texas, and resist the temptation to watch only the man at its centre.
Biography
Dean Stockwell, also credited as Robert Dean Stockwell, was an American actor whose career spanned more than seventy years. He began as a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appeared in films including Anchors Aweigh (1945), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Kim (1950).
As an adult he took lead roles in the 1959 screen version of Compulsion and the 1962 film Long Day's Journey into Night. Later credits include Dune (1984), Paris, Texas (1984), Blue Velvet (1986), Married to the Mob (1988), The Player (1992) as Andy Civella, Air Force One (1997) and The Manchurian Candidate (2004). On television he played Rear Admiral Al Calavicci in Quantum Leap (1989–1993) and John Cavil in Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009).
