Scott Stewart Bakula was born on October 9th, 1954 in St Louis, Missouri, USA. At an early age he had a great interest in music and loved performing.
Through out school, he had rock bands from the fourth grade on and sang in the choir. He had the starring role in a local production of Amahl And The Night Visitors with the St Louis Symphony at the Kirkwood Presbyterian Church, Missouri. About halfway through his sophomore year in college, he realized that accounting and pre-law was not for him. It didn't satisfy his love of music and theater so he changed his major to theater. He moved to New York in 1976 and appeared in a large variety of musicals over the next ten years. Scott’s first Broadway debut was in 1983, where he played Joe Di Maggio in "Marilyn, An American Fable". Scott Bakula’s first break into TV came when he appeared in two commercials. One, dancing and singing the praises of Canada Dry and the other talking about the amazing de-caffeinated Folgers Coffee “De-caffeinated coffee?, and I’m waking up” During the years of 1986 – 1988, he appeared and starred in various TV shows, Another World, On Our Own,My Sister Sam,Designing Women, Matlock,, a Disney movie The I Man, Gung Ho and Eisenhower and Lutz. In 1988, The writers' strike occurred while Scott was in New York promoting Eisenhower & Lutz. The show was cancelled when the strike ended but by then he was already on the boards doing the Broadway musical,Romance Romance. His contract was based on his going back to do Eisenhower & Lutz if it was to continue. Romance, Romance was just supposed to be something he did during filming hiatus. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1988 for his dual performance of Alfred/Sam in this musical but he lost to Michael Crawford in Phantom Of The Opera. Soon after this successful musical, Scott was contacted by his Agent, about a new TV show Don Bellisario had created. He read for the part of Sam Beckett, the time traveler and won the starring role in Quantum Leap ,alongside Dean Stockwell , who played his holographic friend,Al. This highly acclaimed TV series earned him a Golden Globe award and four Emmy nominations for best actor and a further three Golden Globe nominations and four VQT awards (Viewers Quality Television) Unfortunately, the show was cancelled in 1993. Scott proved himself to be a very capable Director as well by directing three of the Quantum Leap episodes himself. (Permanent Wave, Roberto and Promised Land) Scott, then moved on to do thirteen episodes of Murphy Brown, playing FYI reporter and Murphy’s love interest, Peter Hunt.His work on this show won him another VQT award for best specialty player. In 1994, he appeared in a TV variety special with Carol Burnett, called Men, Movies and Carol, where he displayed his wonderful talent for comedy,singing and dancing. Within the same year Scott also made a guest appearance on Dream On, a two part episode called The Taking of Pablum 1-2-3. He sang the National Anthem at the World Baseball series in 1994. Scott is a great supporter of many charities and has taken time to either star in or participate in several benefit performances. In 1995 he appeared in a benefit play The Importance Of Being Wilde with Malcolm McDowell. On April 8th, 1995 he starred in the Stephen Sondheim musical Anyone Can Whistle at Carnegie Hall, An AIDS benefit concert In 1996, he again joined Carol Burnett at the Hollywood Bowl to sing the Grand finale, a tribute to all the Hollywood musicals. From the years 1986 till 2002 he has starred and appeared in both feature and TV movies. In 1996, under the banner of Bakula Productions Incorporated, he produced and starred in the short lived but delightful television series Mr & Mrs Smith In 1999, Scott and his partner Chelsea Field appeared together in the benefit play,Love Letters to aid The Arthur MaCready Trust In 2001,they teamed together again to take part in You Gotta Have Friends, a benefit concert for the Hamilton Musical Academy, at Hamilton High School , in Los Angeles. Scott was asked to again sing the National Anthem in April 2002, this time for a hockey game at the Staples Center in L.A. Another benefit performance of You Gotta Have Friends, Part II took place on April 13th, 2002 at Hamilton High School, where again Scott and Chelsea sang and danced. In June,2002 Scott returned with Chelsea to his hometown St Louis for a benefit performance of the musical "I Do, I Do". This performance was to aid the children of Our Little Haven Scott and Chelsea performed again at the Hamilton Musical Academy in LA in 2004. In May 2005, they teamed together for special repeat performance of the musical "I Do, I Do" at the concert hall of the Hamilton High School. On May 11th, 2001 Paramount announced that Scott Bakula would be the next Star Trek Captain Jonathan Archer in the fifth series Enterprise. There were four seasons but unfortunately the show was cancelled in 2005 During the months of March 17 through to April 30 2006, Scott performed in the stage civil war drama, Shenandoah at the historic Fords Theatre in Washington. DC. His role was as the patriarch Charlie Anderson Scott appeared at the 40th Anniversary Star Trek Convention in Los Angeles in August 2006 and received a standing ovation. He was well received and generously donated his time to answer questions and pose for photos with fans. In September 2006 Scott guest starred on two episodes of The New Adventures of Old Christine In February 2007, Scott was one of the cast members in the movie project, Blue Smoke, an adaptation of Nora Roberts book. Scott returned to the stage again in May 2007, leading the cast as David Jordan in the musical No Strings at The Freud Playhouse, New York. Five months later Scott starred in Quality of Life, a play written by Jane Anderson. The play is about two complicated couples from apparent stereotypes: California liberals and heartland conservatives. In January of 2008,Scott returned to the Fords Theatre, but this time it was a very personal and special performance. The show was called An Evening With Scott Bakula. Scott was backed by a five-piece orchestra and sang songs spanning his entire career. The evening also featured the Duke Ellington Jazz Choir. The Old Globe theatre in San Diego was Scott's next stage performance from March 4th to April 18th, 2008. He played the role of Tony Hunter in the musical "Dancing In The Dark" This production was a remake of the Fred Astaire musical,"The Band Wagon". Note: Some of the above information was gathered from Ann Raymont's Scott Bakula Biography, Project Quantum Leap's magazine, The Observer Note: Some of the above information was gathered from Ann Raymont's Scott Bakula Biography, Project Quantum Leap's magazine, The Observer
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