| Jonathan Frakes  AKA Jonathan Scott Frakes
Born: 19-Aug-1952
Birthplace: Bethlehem, PA
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor, Film Director Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Commander Riker on Star Trek: TNG Jonathan Frakes played Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation. "Talking to blue screens, talking to ice crystals, talking to piles of tar, talking to people with rubber on their heads, spikes coming out of their ears, ridges on their nose -- it's all become part of our lives," he said when the show ended its seven-year run. "It was something we did every week, talk to an 'x' on the screen and assume that it would ultimately have a nose. ... I mean, what's it like? It's absurd, that's what it is. It's never boring."
Prior to his assignment aboard the Enterprise, Frakes was mostly a soap opera actor, appearing in the prime time dramas Bare Essence and Paper Dolls and the daytime soap The Doctors, where he played a Vietnam veteran dealing with post-traumatic stress.
Frakes was able to keep a straight face while narrating Fox's Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction. He also hosted Beyond Belief, a paranormal docudrama guessing game wherein the audience saw several bizarre short stories, and was then told which were fiction and which were allegedly factual. He has directed several episodes of TNG, other Star Trek series, and an episode of Diagnosis: Murder, not to mention a Star Trek video game, two of the Star Trek movies, and the non-Trek films Clockstoppers and Thunderbirds. He was executive producer of Roswell.
Frakes seems to enjoy inside jokes. In Clockstoppers, there is a scene where leading lady Paula Garcés says, "Make it so, Number One", a little nod to Trek fans. And Frakes appeared as himself on Roswell, twice -- first attending a UFO convention, and in another episode directing an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Father: James Frakes (Professor of English Literature, Lehigh University, d. 2002)
Mother: Doris Yingling (homemaker)
Brother: Daniel Frakes (b. 18-May-1955, d. 1997, pancreatic cancer)
Wife: Genie Francis (actress, b. 1962, m. 28-May-1988)
Son: Jameson Ivor Frakes (b. 20-Aug-1994)
Daughter: Elizabeth Francis Frakes (b. 30-May-1997)
High School: Liberty High School, Bethlehem, PA (1970)
University: BFA Theater Arts, Pennsylvania State University (1974)
University: MA, Harvard University (1976)
TELEVISION
The Lot Roland White (1999-2001)
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction? Host (1998-2002)
Star Trek: The Next Generation Cmdr. William Thomas Riker (1987-94)
Falcon Crest Damon Ross (1985)
Paper Dolls Sandy Parris (1984)
Bare Essence Marcus Marshall (1983)
The Doctors Tom Carroll (1977-78)
FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
Truth Be Told (16-Apr-2011)
The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (7-Dec-2008)
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (9-Oct-2006)
Thunderbirds (14-Jul-2004)
Clockstoppers (17-Mar-2002)
Star Trek: Insurrection (11-Dec-1998)
Star Trek: First Contact (22-Nov-1996)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Trek Nation (30-Nov-2011) · Himself
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (9-Oct-2006)
Star Trek: Nemesis (9-Dec-2002) · William Riker
Dying to Live (22-Apr-1999)
Star Trek: Insurrection (11-Dec-1998) · Riker
Trekkies (18-Oct-1997) · Himself
Star Trek: First Contact (22-Nov-1996) · Riker
Brothers of the Frontier (6-Apr-1996) · Ben Frye
Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction? (28-Aug-1995) · Himself
Gargoyles: The Heroes Awaken (Feb-1995) [VOICE]
Star Trek: Generations (18-Nov-1994) · Riker
Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III (27-Feb-1994)
The Cover Girl and the Cop (16-Jan-1989)
North and South II (4-May-1986)
North and South (3-Nov-1985)
Bare Essence (4-Oct-1982)
Beulah Land (7-Oct-1980)
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