Scott Bakula - Career

Career

Bakula moved to New York City in 1976. There he made his Broadway playing baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable, and appeared in the well-received Off-Broadway production Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down; he would later in its Pasadena Playhouse production. The success of Three Guys Off-Broadway brought him attention, and when his next show, the musical Nightclub Confidential, 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,

I call up and said I got a show, I'm gonna be out there, I'm coming out in January. So it'll work out because it's time for pilot season and I'll be doing something so people can come and see me. ... And then I coincidentally had done a Disney Sunday Night ABC movie that was gonna come out some time in the winter. It was the time to go. Came out here on New Year's Day, 1986. The show I did turned out to be a big hit out here. It got me a lot of attention out here and I jumped onto ] Designing Women in the beginning and was able to do that pilot ... and things kind of took off.

His television debut had come in commercials for Canada Dry and for decaffeinated Folgers coffee, and now was cast in two short-lived series Gung Ho and Eisenhower & Lutz. During a Hollywood writers' strike, he returned to New York to star in Romance / Romance, and then afterward landed the lead role opposite co-star Dean Stockwell in the science-fiction television series Quantum Leap. Bakula played time traveler Dr. Sam Beckett, who was trapped by a malfunction of his time machine to correct things gone wrong in the past. His performance in this program would earn him a Golden Globe award (along with three nominations) and four Emmy nominations for Best Actor as well as five consecutive Viewers For Quality Television Awards for Best Actor in a Quality Drama Series.

In 1995, Bakula appeared on the cover of Playgirl. In 1997, Bakula voiced Danny Cat in the animated feature Cats Don't Dance, singing in one number with Natalie Cole. In 1998, Bakula played the aging veteran pitcher Gus Cantrell in Major League: Back to the Minors, the final movie in the Major League trilogy. He also played Jim Olmeyer, same-sex partner of Sam Robards' Jim Berkley, in the 1999 film American Beauty.

As Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise, Bakula played the captain of Earth's first long-range interstellar ship. In 2006, he reprised the role of Archer for the Star Trek Legacy PC and Xbox 360 video games as a voiceover. Bakula starred in the musical Shenandoah, a play which also provided his first professional theatrical role in 1976, at Ford's Theatre, in 2006. Bakula is heard singing "Pig Island" on Sandra Boynton's children's CD Philadelphia Chickens, which is labeled as being "For all ages except 43."

Some of Bakula's other musical appearances include the Hollywood Bowl in 1996 and 2004, Carnegie Hall, a benefit performance of Stephen Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle in 1995, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1993 and 2003, in honor of Sondheim and Carol Burnett, respectively. Scott Bakula said that he might be starring as Sam in a Quantum Leap film as stated in TV Guide Magazine along with Dean Stockwell. At Comic Con 2010, he announced that a script was being worked on and that while he would be in the movie, he would not be in the main role.

Bakula performed various songs from his career for a one-night-only performance entitled An Evening with Scott Bakula at Sidney Harman Hall on January 18, 2008, as a benefit for the restoration of the historic Ford's Theater. Bakula had three appearances in 2008. He appeared as Atty. Jack Ross in an episode of Boston Legal, "Glow in the Dark", which aired on February 12, 2008 on the ABC network. From March 4 - April 20 he starred as Tony Hunter in the world premiere of Dancing in the Dark at The Old Globe in San Diego, California. Dancing in the Dark is based on the 1950s movie The Band Wagon, which starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. Bakula appeared as the character Chris Fulbright in the five episode run of the Tracey Ullman sketch comedy series State of the Union on Showtime.

Bakula appeared in the 2009 dark comedy film The Informant! as Brian Shepard, an FBI agent working with the title character, Mark Whitacre, (played by Matt Damon).

In April 2009, Bakula began a recurring role on the television series Chuck as Stephen Bartowski, the eponymous character's long lost father. From July 31 to August 2, 2009, he starred as Nathan Detroit in three performances of Guys and Dolls at Hollywood Bowl. Beginning in December 2009, Bakula began appearing as Terry, one of the three lead characters, along with Ray Romano (Joe) and Andre Braugher (Owen), in TNT's hour long comedy/drama Men of a Certain Age. In 2011, he performed a voice cameo in the film Source Code as a slight nod to his character on Quantum Leap, with his catchphrase of "Oh, boy."

Also in 2011, Bakula appeared in the feature length documentary The Captains. In the film, which was written and directed by William Shatner, Bakula is interviewed by the original Star Trek captain about his life and career leading up to his performances as Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise. In the movie Shatner interviews Bakula at his ranch in California where the pair ride horses and discuss the pitfalls that come with a career in television.

In September 2011, Bakula starred in Terrible Advice by Saul Rubinek at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

In April to May 2012, Bakula guest starred in the last five episodes of Desperate Housewives as Bree Van de Kamp's criminal defense lawyer and third husband.