Dean Stockwell started acting professionally during the mid-1940s. He is perhaps best-known for playing Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci in the TV Series Quantum Leap opposite Scott Bakula (who played Jonathan Archer on Enterprise).

Stockwell appeared opposite Bakula again when he played Colonel Grat in the Enterprise Season 1 episode "Detained."

More recently Stockwell has had a recurring multiplicitous role in Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica as one of the seven known human-like Cylon models — often seen several times in a shot at once.