Scott Bakula

Scott Stewart Bakula (born October 9, 1954) is an American actor, best known for his role as Sam Beckett in the television series Quantum Leap, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama in 1991 and was nominated for four Emmy Awards. He also had a prominent role as Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise.

Bakula can currently be seen on the TNT series 'Men of a Certain Age'

Bakula left college to pursue acting, having been cast in the leading role in a national tour of Godspell. The tour was canceled before it began and he soon moved to New York. Shortly after, he was cast in a dinner theater production of Shenandoah in North Carolina.

In 1983, Bakula, having previously appeared as a standby, made his Broadway debut playing Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable. His television debut came in commercials for Canada Dry and for de-caffeinated Folgers coffee. He also appeared in an off Broadway production of "Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down".^[2]

His performance in the Broadway musical Romance/Romance and subsequent Tony Award nomination helped Bakula win the lead role opposite Dean Stockwell in the critically acclaimed television series Quantum Leap.^[3] In this science fiction series, Bakula played the 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 (5) 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 Cats Don't Dance, a high-rated, but little-known, animated movie, 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 (film) trilogy. He also played Jim Olmeyer, partner of Sam Robards' Jim Berkley, in the Academy Award-winning American Beauty in 1999.

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.