Samuel John Beckett | |
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First appearance | "Genesis" (March 26, 1989) |
Last appearance | "Mirror Image" (May 5, 1993) |
Created by | Donald P. Bellisario |
Portrayed by | Scott Bakula |
Information | |
Nickname(s) | Sam |
Species | Human |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Scientist Time traveller |
Family | John Beckett (father, deceased) Thelma Beckett (mother) Tom Beckett (brother,deceased) Katherine Beckett (sister) |
Spouse(s) | Dr. Donna Eleese |
Children | Samantha Josephine 'Sammy Jo' Fuller (daughter) |
Dr. Samuel "Sam" Beckett is a fictional character and the protagonist on the science fiction television series Quantum Leap, played by Scott Bakula.
Initially, the audience knows very little about Sam, much as Sam knows little about himself due to holes in his memory dubbed the "Swiss cheese effect."
Sam Beckett was born at 12:30 pm EST on August 8, 1953, in Elk Ridge, Indiana to dairy farmer John Samuel Beckett and his wife Thelma Louise Beckett. As a child, he had two cats, named Donner and Blitzen, but never had a dog. Sam was a child prodigy, learning to read at age 2 and do advanced calculus in his head at age 5. By the time he was 10, he could beat a computer at chess. Sam also played piano in a concert at Carnegie Hall when he was 19, plays guitar, is a good dancer, sings tenor, and his favorite song is John Lennon's "Imagine".
Sam has a photographic memory, an IQ of 267, likes dry or light beer, and microwave popcorn. Sam also knows several kinds of martial arts and has been afraid of heights since he was 9 years old. In his teen years, Sam's family was dealt a hard blow when his older brother, Tom, was killed in Vietnam on April 8, 1970, but Sam leaps into his brother's unit and saves him on that day. Tom (Thomas Andrew Beckett) was a good athlete, an All-State basketball player, an Annapolis graduate, is a Navy SEAL Commander, and has a wife named Mary. Sam has one sister named Katie (Katherine Elizabeth Beckett), born during a flood in 1957, whose first husband was an abusive alcoholic named Chuck. They divorced and she is now married to Navy officer Lt. Jim Bonnick. They have lived in Hawaii with Thelma Beckett since 1974.