Jonathan Frakes
Jonathan Frakes | |
|---|---|
 Frakes at the 2005 Dallas Comic Con | |
| Born | Jonathan Frakes |
Jonathan Frakes (born August 19, 1952) is an American actor and director best known for his portrayal of Commander William Riker in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Moving on to directing in recent years, Frakes directed and also starred in Star Trek: First Contact, which earned him the nickname "Two-Takes" Frakes for his speed.
Early life
Frakes was born in Bellefonte, in central Pennsylvania but grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the state. He is a 1970 graduate of Bethlehem's Liberty High School.
He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Theater Arts at Penn State University in the early 1970s, where he was also a member of the Thespians, and a Masters from Harvard.
His father, James R. Frakes, was a well-respected book critic for the New York Times Book Review, a book editor, and professor of English literature at Lehigh University from 1958-2001, where he was the Edmund W. Fairchild Professor in American Studies. He died in early 2002.
Frakes had one brother, Daniel, who died in 1997 from pancreatic cancer. His mother, Doris, is a homemaker who still lives in the Bethlehem area.
Film and television career
He 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. His first Broadway appearance was in Shenandoah. At the same time, he landed a role in the NBC soap opera The Doctors. When his character was dismissed from the soap, Frakes moved to Los Angeles, California and played guest spots in many of the top television shows of the 1970s and 1980s, including The Waltons and Steven Bochco's Hill Street Blues. He had recurring roles in Falcon Crest and North & South, before signing for the role of Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
He has done animation voice acting, most notably voicing the recurring role of David Xanatos in the television 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 hosted Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction and had a small, uncredited role in the 1994 movie Camp Nowhere.
In the miniseries North and South, he played Stanley Hazard of Hazard Iron, a weak man easily manipulated by his mother and wife, a character in stark contrast to the strong Commander Riker role from Star Trek.
Frakes is also the only Star Trek regular besides Majel Barrett to appear on four different Star Trek series (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise). He has directed episodes in three of them (TNG, DS9 and VOY) and was a popular and innovative director on the Star Trek set, often finding completely new ways to shoot the show's familiar sets.
His talents are not limited to the acting arts. Frakes appears on the Phish album Hoist, playing trombone on the track titled "Riker's Mailbox". Indeed, Frakes would occasionally perform on the trombone during his tenure as Commander Riker.
Frakes married soap opera actress Genie Francis on May 28, 1988. They live in Maine with their son, Jameson Ivor-born in 1994, and daughter, Elizabeth Francis-born in 1997. 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 co-owns a home furnishings store with his wife Genie Francis in Belfast, Maine called The Cherished Home.[1]
Directing filmography
Feature films
- Thunderbirds (2004)
- Clockstoppers (2002)
- Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
- Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
- Star Trek: Klingon (1996) - interactive movie
Individual episodes of television series
- Roswell
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (with Genie Francis, as a husband-and-wife)
- Star Trek: Voyager
- University Hospital
- Diagnosis: Murder
- The New Twilight Zone
- The Dukes of Hazzard
External links
- 1952 births
- Living people
- American film actors
- American film directors
- American television actors
- American television directors
- American voice actors
- English-language film directors
- Falcon Crest actors
- Family Guy actors
- Film actors
- Gargoyles voice actors
- Harvard University alumni
- Matlock actors
- Penn State University alumni
- People from the Lehigh Valley
- Roswell actors
- Star Trek behind the scenes
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actors
- Star Trek: Enterprise actors
- Star Trek film actors
- Star Trek: The Next Generation actors
- Star Trek: Voyager actors