Scott Bakula

Scott Stewart Bakula (; born October 9, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in two science-fiction television series: as Sam Beckett on Quantum Leapfor which he received four Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Awardand as Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise. From 2014 to 2021, he portrayed Special Agent Dwayne Cassius "King" Pride on NCIS: New Orleans. A Tony Award-nominee for his work on Broadway, Bakula starred in the comedy-drama series Men of a Certain Age and guest-starred in the second and third seasons of NBC's Chuck as the title character's father, Stephen J. Bartowski. From 2014 to 2015, he played entrepreneur Lynn on the HBO show Looking. Early life Bakula was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Sally and Joseph Stewart Bakula (1928–2014), a lawyer. He has a younger brother and a younger sister. The family surname comes from Czech and Slovak ancestry, translating literally to "stick" (spelled bakuľa). He attended Jefferson College, followed by the University of Kansas for a time, but left, saying: Career Bakula moved to New York City in 1976. He made his professional debut in the 1977 national tour of the musical Shenandoah. He made his Broadway debut in 1982 as an understudy in the short-lived musical Is There Life After High School? The following year, he appeared as baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable, which only ran 17 performances. He received a shared Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble Acting for his performance in the 1985 Off-Broadway production of Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down; he would later appear in its Pasadena Playhouse production. The success of Three Guys Off-Broadway brought him attention, and when his next show, the musical Nightclub Confidential, which co-starred his wife Krista Neumann, moved to Los Angeles, he moved there at the urging of his California agent, Maggie Henderson, and his New York agent, Jerry Hogan. As Bakula recalled in 2000: