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Jonathan Frakes

Jonathan Scott Frakes (born August 19, 1952) is an American actor and director. He is best known for his portrayal of William Riker in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent films and series. He has also hosted the anthology series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, voiced David Xanatos in the Disney television series Gargoyles, and narrated the History Channel documentary, Lee and Grant. He is the credited author of the novel The Abductors: Conspiracy, which was ghostwritten by Dean Wesley Smith.

Frakes began directing episodes of The Next Generation during its third season, and went on to direct the feature films Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and episodes of the later Star Trek series Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, and Picard. He later directed the feature films Clockstoppers (2002) and Thunderbirds (2004). He has since directed prolifically for television, including for The Librarian television films and series, Roswell, Leverage, and Burn Notice.

Early life and education

Frakes was born in 1952 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, to Doris J. (née Yingling; 1926–2020) and James R. Frakes (1924–2002). Frakes's father was a professor of English literature and American studies at Lehigh University from 1958 to 2001, and was also a reviewer and critic for The New York Times Book Review. Frakes had a younger brother, Daniel, who died in 1997 from pancreatic cancer. Raised in Bethlehem in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, he attended Liberty High School in Bethlehem, where he ran track, played with the Liberty High School Grenadier Band as a trombonist, and graduated in 1970.

Frakes attended Pennsylvania State University, where he was a member of the Thespians, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater Arts in 1974. Although he had enjoyed performing in plays throughout junior high and high school, it was not until he entered Penn State that he began to take acting seriously. While he was working a summer job as an usher at the Festival of America Theatre, a director spotted him and suggested he would make a great addition to his play's chorus. Transformed by the experience, Frakes immediately changed his major from psychology to theater.

Frakes then went on to attend Harvard University, where he became a member of the university's acting company, the Loeb Drama Center, and graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1976.

Career

Early work

For a time in the late 1970s, Frakes worked for Marvel Comics, appearing in costume as Captain America at conventions and other promotional events as well as for special appearances; he credits the experience in helping to hone his skills on interacting with fans on the Star Trek convention circuit. After graduating from Harvard, Frakes moved to New York City and became a member of the Impossible Ragtime Theater. In that company, Frakes did his first off-Broadway acting in Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape directed by George Ferencz. His first Broadway appearance was in 1976 in the musical Shenandoah. Around the same time, he landed a role in the NBC soap opera The Doctors. When his character, Vietnam veteran Tom Carroll, was dismissed from the show, Frakes, urged by his agent, moved to Los Angeles, where he obtained guest spots in many of the top television series of the 1970s and 1980s, including The Waltons, Eight Is Enough, Hart to Hart, Barnaby Jones, The Dukes of Hazzard, Matlock, Quincy, M.E., and Hill Street Blues.

He played the part of Charles Lindbergh in a 1983 episode of Voyagers! titled "An Arrow Pointing East". In 1983, he had a role in the short-lived NBC prime time soap opera Bare Essence (which also starred his future wife Genie Francis), and a supporting role in the equally short-lived primetime soap Paper Dolls in 1984. He also had recurring roles in Falcon Crest and the miniseries North and South. Frakes appeared in the 1986 miniseries Dream West.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

In 1987, Frakes was cast in the role of Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was one of only two actors to appear in every episode (the other being Patrick Stewart). While appearing on the show, Frakes was allowed to sit in on casting sessions, concept meetings, production design, editing, and post-production, which gave him the preparation he needed to become a director. He directed eight episodes of the show and 21 episodes of the Star Trek universe. After the TV series ended in 1994, Frakes reprised his role in the Star Trek: The Next Generation films, two of which (Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection) he directed.

Frakes has appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks, making him the only Star Trek regular to appear in six Star Trek series. He has also directed episodes in six of the series (TNG, DS9, VOY, DIS, PIC, and SNW). Frakes is also one of six Star Trek actors (the other actors being Kate Mulgrew, Michael Dorn, George Takei, Avery Brooks and Majel Barrett) to lend their voices to the video game Star Trek: Captain's Chair, reprising his role as Riker when users visit the Enterprise-E bridge featured in the game.

After Star Trek

Branching out from the Star Trek franchise, Frakes directed the 2002 family film Clockstoppers. However, his next film, 2004's Thunderbirds, was a box-office bomb, which he has said single-handedly almost destroyed what had been a successful directing career: "[My] name was taken off the lists ... I went from 60 to zero. It was a wake-up for me. I had been so positive, and so blessed, and so fortunate." It was several years before Frakes was given another opportunity to direct for television, and Thunderbirds remains his final theatrical directorial credit.

Much of Frakes's acting work after Star Trek has been animation voice acting, most notably voicing the recurring role of David Xanatos in the animated series Gargoyles, and he provided the voice of his own head in a jar in the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". He had a small, uncredited role in the 1994 film Camp Nowhere. Frakes also voiced Finn the Human's adult version in the episodes "Puhoy" and "Dungeon Train" on Adventure Time.

Frakes was an executive producer for the WB series Roswell, directed several episodes, and guest-starred in three episodes. His relationship with Star Trek is downplayed in the season 3 episode "Secrets and Lies", in which the alien character Max auditions for a guest role as an alien for Star Trek: Enterprise.

Frakes appeared on the 1994 Phish album Hoist, playing trombone on the track titled "Riker's Mailbox". Frakes would occasionally perform on the trombone during his tenure as Commander Riker, drawing on his college marching band experience. He was also a member of "The Sunspots", a vocal backup group of Star Trek cast members that appeared on Brent Spiner's 1991 album Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back.

Frakes hosted The Paranormal Borderline, a short-lived television series on UPN, which dealt with the paranormal and mysterious happenings and creatures. In one episode, Frakes presented an interview of reporter Yolanda Gaskins with veteran astronaut Gordon Cooper, where they discussed the possibility of aliens having visited Earth in the past. He hosted seasons 2 through 6 of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, which also dealt with the paranormal world.

Frakes and Francis appeared together in Lois & Clark in the episode "Don't Tug on Superman's Cape" as a creepily too-good-to-be-true couple. He narrated the History Channel's That's Impossible.

In addition to Roswell, Frakes has directed episodes of Leverage, Castle, NCIS: Los Angeles, Burn Notice, Falling Skies and most recently Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Switched at Birth, Hit the Floor, The Librarians, and The Orville. So far, The Librarians has been one of the most positively rated and recommended work of his out of the previous, following the debut film The Librarian and the Quest for the Spear.

Frakes works with the Workshops, the Waterfall Arts Center, and the Saltwater Film Society, all located in Maine, where he teaches classes on film direction. He has also previously taught directing and filmmaking courses at Rockport College, now called Maine Media College. He and Francis owned a home furnishings store in Belfast, Maine, called The Cherished Home, which closed in August 2012 due to her being too busy with her acting to spend adequate time at the store.

Personal life

Frakes and actress Debralee Scott met at an exercise class in Los Angeles. They married after about a year (some time before November 30, 1984) and lived in a 2-bedroom house in Sherman Oaks, California.

Frakes first met actress Genie Francis on the set of the television soap opera Bare Essence, and again while filming the mini-series North and South. They began dating in 1985, became engaged in 1986, and married on May 28, 1988. The couple have two children, Jameson Ivor Frakes (born August 20, 1994) and Elizabeth Frances Frakes (born May 30, 1997).

In 2008, they moved from Belfast, Maine, to Beverly Hills, California, and later to Calabasas, California.