The following is a list of characters from the sci-fi/drama Quantum Leap, created by Donald P. Bellisario.
Recurring characters
Project Quantum Leap
- Dr. Donna Eleese (Teri Hatcher, age 19 / Mimi Kuzyk, age 45) – Born Donna Wojohowitz, she is Sam's wife and director of Project Quantum Leap in her husband's absence. Originally, Donna was not involved with the project, until Sam altered history, thus ensuring her involvement and getting rid of the Committee (see below).
- Dr. Irving "Gooshie" Gushman (Dennis Wolfberg) – Project Quantum Leap's head computer programmer and senior operations coordinator. A quirky man, Gooshie is often described as "a little guy with bad breath". He is the butt of jokes between Sam and (especially) Al. When he is seen, he tends to be in a state of worry due to Sam's present situation. Gooshie once filled in for Al as Sam's holographic contact when Al was busy attempting to track down a murderer who escaped the waiting room.
- Dr. Verbena Beeks (Candy Ann Brown) – The project's head psychiatrist. It is her job to work directly with the person Sam displaces when he leaps as they are often in a state of shock and panic when they arrive.
- Tina Martinez (Gigi Rice) – Tina is a medical technician that works on the Project. No one can enter the Imaging Chamber or the Accelerator Chamber without first being inspected by her. She is Al's girlfriend and is also having a secret affair with Gooshie. In the episode where Sam accidentally erased Al from existence, she was married to Gooshie.
- Edward St. John V (Roddy McDowall) – When Sam changed history and accidentally erased Al from existence, Edward St. John V appeared as his holographic contact. After correcting the error, Al reappeared. Whether or not St. John works on the Project outside of that alternate timeline is unknown.
- Samantha Josephine "Sammy Jo" Fuller (Kimberly Cullum, age 11) – Project technician who works on the project. She is the biological daughter of Sam and Abigail Fuller, conceived during a leap into Abigail's fiancé in 1966. Only the child-version of Sammy Jo is ever seen. Sammy Jo spends her life believing that Abigail's former fiancée is her biological father, and she is never told anything different. Sam figures out that Sammy Jo is his daughter, and Al confirms this through Ziggy. Child Sammy Jo resembles Abigail at the same age, but with Sam's hair colour. She has a fascination with time travel and has a photographic memory, and bonds easily with Sam. Sam has no memory of meeting adult Sammy Jo, even though she works on the project with him. Ziggy's prediction that Sam will forget this secret when he has his next leap comes true. This means that only Al knows the truth about Sammy Jo's parentage.
- Senator (Warren Frost) – The head of a government oversight committee that tried to shut down Project Quantum Leap when Sam failed to stop the downing of a U-2 spy plane.
- Senator Diane McBride (Alice Adair) – Although he failed to stop the U-2, Sam did change history and Senator Diane McBride became the head of the oversight committee and ruled to continue the Project's funding. Al witnesses the former Senator change into Diane. He immediately realizes that this was the result of Sam changing the timeline, but is the only person who is aware of it. He never mentions what he witnessed to anyone.
- The Committee – Led by men named Weitzman and Bartlett, the committee oversaw Project Quantum Leap until Sam altered history, bringing Donna onto the Project,[citation needed] assuring government funding and eliminating the need for the Committee.
Friends and family
- John Samuel Beckett (Newell Alexander/Scott Bakula) – Sam's father, a gruff but kind dairy farmer in Elk Ridge, Indiana. He was named after his grandfather, a Civil War officer. When Sam leaps into his teenage self, he recalls that his father had died a few years later due to poor health. Sam fails in getting him to quit smoking and eat better.
- Thelma Louise Beckett (Caroline Kava) – Sam's mother. After her husband's death, she moved to Hawaii to live with her daughter and her second husband.
- Lieutenant Thomas "Tom" Beckett (David Newsom) – Sam's older brother who was killed in Vietnam on April 8, 1970, until Sam changed history and kept his brother alive. However, this resulted in Al not being rescued and being held as a prisoner of war. His first wife then believed Al to have been killed in action and moved on with another husband, not knowing that Al was trying to get back to her.
- Katherine "Katie" Beckett (Olivia Burnette) – Sam's younger sister. To get away from trouble at home, she married an abusive alcoholic named Chuck at a young age. Years later she divorced him and eventually married an Air Force officer, Lieutenant Jim Bonick. After John Beckett's death, Thelma lived with Katie and Jim.
- Beth Calavicci (Susan Diol) – Al's first wife and the only woman he ever truly loved. When Sam meets Beth during a Season 2 leap, she believes that she is widowed as her husband, who was serving in military action in the Vietnam war, had been reported missing in action and presumed dead. Al pressures Sam into stopping her forming a relationship with another man, insisting that "her husband" was still alive. Sam figures out Beth's identity and refuses to fulfill Al's request, deeming it to be selfish. In his next two leaps, Sam tries to save his own brother in the Vietnam war. This accidentally thwarts a rescue attempt that would have rescued Al, causing him to become a war prisoner. When Al is freed and returns home, he learns that Beth thought he was dead and had remarried, so he chooses to leave her alone. Sam is given a chance to put this right, and then assures Beth that her husband Al is alive and is trying to get back to her.
- Sammy Jo Fuller – Sam's daughter due to his leaping. See 'Project Quantum Leap' above.
- Captain John Beckett (Scott Bakula) – Captain John Beckett is a civil war officer and Sam's great-great grandfather. Sam leaps into him, making him the only leapee to have existed outside of Sam's own time. While he represents the North, he is taken hostage by a supporter of the Southern Army. Al confirms through Ziggy that his abductor is the Captain's future wife and Sam's great-great grandmother, who must ensure that she falls in love with the Captain. Otherwise Sam would prevent his own birth and potentially stop Project Quantum Leap from ever beginning and undoing every change Sam ever made.
Antagonists
In Season 5, Sam discovers a leaper from another project. This leaper project seems to follow the same structure and scientific principles as Quantum Leap, but is dedicated to the opposite goal of putting wrong what once went right. The participants sometimes make reference to unspecified authority figures who torture them greatly if they fail.
- Alia (Renée Coleman) – Sam's counterpart, a beautiful and deadly woman who is leaping around in time, committing terrible acts in an attempt to get home. Alia and Sam see each other as their respective leapees until they make physical contact. The first time Sam touches Alia, their genuine identities are revealed simultaneously. After meeting and failing to kill Sam twice, Alia abandons her old ways and tries to escape the ones controlling her leaping with Sam's help. At the end of "Revenge of the Evil Leaper" her leap is accompanied by a blue hue rather than her usual red hue, implying she has escaped the Evil Leaper project. It is implied that Alia was an unwilling participant in the project.
- Zoey (Carolyn Seymour) – Alia's holographic partner. She is a cruel and sadistic woman who, after Alia breaks free of their project's control on her, leaps back in an attempt to kill Alia herself. Unlike Sam and Al, Zoey is clearly in charge of her respective pairings. She manipulates Alia and cares little about her feelings. While Zoey is a hologram, she can see Sam if Alia can (due to her being tuned in to Alia's brainwaves), but Sam remains unable to see or hear her.
- Thames (Hinton Battle) – When Zoey leaped, a darkly comical man named Thames became her hologram.
- Lothos – The other project's computer system, analogous to Ziggy, though unlike her seems to have more control over his respective project and their members. Though never seen on the screen he had a rather strong influence on the Evil Leaper project as those who worked under him regarded him as knowing everything and never making mistakes. Like Ziggy however he seemed to have some sort of ego as he was capable of regret as it was said he regretted sending Alia as the Leaper and regarded it as a mistake. Lothos seemed capable of having direct control over the leapers as Zoey once claimed to Alia that he could send her "back to her worst nightmare", and Alia once feared that he himself put her in the women's prison. He also was capable of causing simultaneous torture to both Alia and Zoey through two points in time. However he was not all powerful as he was unable to stop Sam from rescuing Alia from the project, and was once Jammed from performing a search and lock due to special circumstances.