Sam Beckett

Dr. Samuel John 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"—a side effect from the time travel (and an effective trope to allow the writers to add to Sam's character as the show went on). Eventually, it turns out that Sam was a true Renaissance Man, equally good at math/science and the arts. His skills allow him to adapt to the various situations that he finds himself in, although many of those situations still take Sam off guard with comical results.

Sam tends to fall in love easily, yet be naive about women; his traveling companion Al Calavicci has playfully called him a "Boy Scout."

Sam also learned painful things from his past that likely inspired him to travel through time in the first place. Sam tries to do the right thing no matter what, although when the leaps hit close to home, he tends to lose perspective and make irrational decisions; at those times, he requires Al to guide him back to the right path.