John Stockwell Samuels IV^[1] (born March 25, 1961)^[2] is an American actor and filmmaker. For his work on the television film Cheaters (2000), Stockwell was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.^[3]

Stockwell was born in Galveston, Texas, the son of Ellen Richards and John S. Samuels III, an attorney.^[4][5] Stockwell's sister is historian Evelyn Welch, and his niece is singer and songwriter Florence Welch.^[6]

While he was in college at Harvard University near Boston, he commuted to New York City to appear on episodes of the soap opera Guiding Light.^[7]

Early in his career, Stockwell was an international model. During this time, he became a friend of pop artist Andy Warhol.^[8] Stockwell's first feature film as an actor came in a small role in 1981's So Fine. His best known roles came in the 1983 comedy film Losin' It as Spider; later that year, in the John Carpenter horror film Christine as Dennis Guilder; and the 1985 comedy film My Science Project as Michael Harlan.^[9] Also in 1985, he appeared in the poorly received City Limits; though unsuccessful at the box office, it was later riffed in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

He performed in the highly acclaimed 1985 TV mini-series North and South. In 1986, he appeared in Top Gun as Cougar. He made guest appearances on TV shows including The Young Riders and Friday the 13th: The Series.

Stockwell has directed several films, including Cheaters (2000), Crazy/Beautiful (2001), Blue Crush (2002), Into the Blue (2005), Turistas (2006), Heart (2009),^[10] the Gina Carano star-vehicle In the Blood, and the 2016 Kickboxer reboot Kickboxer: Vengeance.^[11]

Stockwell also wrote the screenplay for the 2001 film Rock Star.

Stockwell briefly dated actress Bianca Jagger and model Barbara Allen.^[8]

Stockwell is married to Helene Henderson, a chef and caterer.^[12] They have three children.^[13] His mother, Zsuzsana Nagy is Hungarian and his father from Irish ancestry.^{[citation needed]}