John D’Aquino, a familiar face to Disney Channel viewers of the 2000s, looked upbeat and energetic while out running errands in Los Angeles this week at 68.
The actor first launched his screen career in the 1980s, appearing in films and television projects alongside major names including Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Meg Ryan.
He later made a memorable mark on 1990s television with a guest role on Seinfeld, playing a short-lived romantic interest for Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Elaine Benes.
For a younger generation, however, D’Aquino became best known in the late 2000s as the US president on a Disney Channel spin-off tied to one of the network’s defining hits of the era.
Longtime TV fans may also recognize him from an extensive list of credits that includes Quantum Leap, Xena and 3rd Rock from the Sun.
He was spotted recently stopping off at CVS, dressed in a California casual double-denim outfit accessorized with tortoiseshell sunglasses.
Can you guess who he is?
A beloved Disney Channel star from the 2000s was spotted looking sprightly as he ran errands in Los Angeles this week, aged 68
He began his acting career in the 1980s, featuring in projects that starred the likes of Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Meg Ryan
He was spotted recently stopping off at CVS, dressed in a California casual double-denim outfit accessorized with tortoiseshell sunglasses
He is none other than John D’Aquino, who played the goofball US president Richard Martinez on the That’s So Raven spin-off Cory in the House on Disney Channel.
The Daily Mail has contacted D’Aquino’s representatives for comment.
That’s So Raven starred Raven-Symone in the title role and Kyle Massey as her precocious younger brother Cory, who became the focus of the follow-up series.
Cory in the House, which ran two seasons in 2007 and 2008, sees the character transplanted to Washington, DC, when his father becomes the president’s chef.
D’Aquino was born in 1958 and grew up in the outer boroughs of New York City, where a family crisis he experienced at age eight ignited his interest in acting.
His father suffered a health downturn that left him unable to work, and his mother – having just given birth to her fourth child – ‘started to plummet’ and would ‘cry all the time,’ he recalled in a recent podcast interview for Slug Magazine.
Hoping to ‘put a smile on her face,’ he would ‘put on a little show’ for her by reenacting scenes he had watched on television.
‘And then after a while, I started looking into that television box and going: “They’re having an awfully good time in there. How do I get in there?”‘ he remembered.
He began his Hollywood career in 1985 on the Western series Wildside, which ran a mere six episodes on ABC and featured a pre-fame Ryan.
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(From left) Lisa Arch, John D’Aquino, Madison Pettis, Kyle Massey, Rondell Sheridan, Maiara Walsh and Jason Dolley on Corey in the House
D’Aquino portrayed the loving older brother of a boy with Down syndrome, played by Brad Silverman (left), in Quantum Leap
D’Aquino made his first appearance on the big screen in No Way Out, a 1987 love triangle neo-noir starring Costner, Sean Young and Hackman.
Costner and D’Aquino both played naval officers, with Hackman as the US Defense Secretary and Young as his philandering wife.
The following year, he featured in the cult classic horror picture Pumpkinhead, the first directorial effort of Hollywood’s renowned special effects maestro Stan Winston, whose work in that sphere includes The Terminator, Jurassic Park and Aliens.
D’Aquino also jobbed around on hit TV shows of the era like Magnum, PI; Matlock; 21 Jump Street and, in a turn particularly well-remembered by fans, Quantum Leap.
Scott Bakula led the cast of the latter as a scientist who develops the ability to time travel by inserting his consciousness into other people’s bodies.
D’Aquino featured as the loving, protective older brother of a boy with Down syndrome who becomes one of the vessels for the Bakula character.
‘Scott was very good to me on set and a great leader,’ D’Aquino recalled on The Quantum Leap Podcast. ‘He worked with everyone. He helped everybody on set. On some days, I would see him pulling the cables across – the electrical cables – whatever he could do. He was a great captain of that show.’
In the 1990s, fans could catch his appearances on series including Murder, She Wrote; Xena: Warrior Princess; 3rd Rock from the Sun and even Baywatch.
In 1988, he featured in the cult classic horror picture Pumpkinhead, the first directorial effort of Hollywood’s renowned special effects maestro Stan Winston
Seinfeld fans will remember him from the 1996 episode The Calzone as Todd, a wheeler-dealer who manages to repeatedly finagle his way into dates with Elaine
Seinfeld fans will remember him from the 1996 episode The Calzone as Todd, a wheeler-dealer who manages to repeatedly finagle his way into dates with Elaine without ever asking her out directly.
D’Aquino also starred on season one of the 1990s submarine sci-fi show SeaQuest DSV with the likes of Roy Scheider and Stephanie Beacham.
He won the hearts of the show’s viewers as the mischievous and slightly arrogant supply and morale officer, Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg.
His 21st-century credits included guest appearances on TV shows like JAG, Hannah Montana, Weeds, Monk, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Mentalist, Dexter and SWAT.
Two years ago, he could be seen playing a serial killer’s senator father on Sugar, the drama series starring Colin Farrell as a Los Angeles private investigator.
D’Aquino is now an acting coach, drawing inspiration heavily from the work of Robert De Niro, and is also still actively working onscreen, with projects in the pipeline such as a horror fantasy called The Last Time about a cursed hourglass.