Quantum Leap's costume designer recalls going on a shopping trip with Dean Stockwell on trendy Melrose Avenue

Los Angeles Times

"To get away from the formality of my stuffy studio office, I suggested meeting Dean on Melrose Avenue, where we could glance through several of the many trendy men’s boutiques, then discuss his look over coffee," writes award-winning costume designer Jean-Pierre Dorléac in the Los Angeles Times. "I would also try to persuade him into a casual, informal fitting, giving me an opportunity to find out what cuts and colors he was into and what wardrobe issues I might have to deal with if it came down to buying off the rack. Plus, such a jaunt would be more entertaining than confronting him with a list of questions in my cubicle." But it turns out Stockwell wasn't interested in the clothing he found on Melrose. "At coffee, I pulled out a folder of quick sketches I had done of crazy lapels and collars for shirts, along with abstract ties with Swiss-cheese holes in them, who then confessed to being tired from house hunting — his wife had spent the night sleeping in the driveway of a place they were considering buying to check out the noise on the street — was overjoyed by the presentation," writes Dorléac. "Because he had been making movies for so long, he knew what would work and what wouldn’t on him, but he didn’t have many hard-and-fast rules: He would wear anything but fuchsia. He disliked heels on shoes despite the fact that he was rather short in stature. As for fittings, we nixed them: Dean had done so many of them in his life, he found them time-consuming and dull. He’d rather be surprised by my designs when he saw them for the first time, he said." Dorléac adds: "Throughout the five years I designed the series, Dean proved to be the most professional actor I would ever work with. I can think of only a few others who were as cooperative, kind, considerate, sincere and appreciative: Henry Fonda, Fred Astaire, Sam Shepard, Stephen Collins, Roddy McDowell and Dean’s Quantum Leap co-star, Scott Bakula, among them. Though I will always have the memory of our shopping trip on Melrose Avenue, I will miss him dearly. The screen has lost one of its very best." ALSO: It's hard not to cry reading Scott Bakula's tribute to Dean Stockwell.