Jonathan Scott Frakes is an American actor, author and director.
Frakes is best known for his portrayal of Commander William T. Riker in the television
series Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent films.
Frakes also hosted the television series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, challenging viewers
to discern his stories of fact-based phenomena and fabricated tales.
In June 2011, Frakes narrated the History Channel documentary Lee and Grant.
He was also the voice actor of David Xanatos in the Disney television series Gargoyles.
Frakes directed and also starred in Star Trek: First Contact as well as Star Trek: Insurrection.
He is also the author of a novel called The Abductors: Conspiracy.
Frakes married actress Genie Francis, who portrayed Laura Spencer on General Hospital,
in 1988.
Personal life Frakes was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania,
the son of Doris J. and James R. Frakes.
He is of mostly German, and some English, descent.
He grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the state.
A 1970 graduate of Bethlehem's Liberty High School, he ran track and played with the Liberty
High School Grenadier Band.
Frakes received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Theater Arts at Penn State University in the
early 1970s, where he was a member of the Thespians.
His father was a 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.
James R. Frakes died in early 2002.
Frakes had a younger brother, Daniel, who died in 1997 from pancreatic cancer.
Career For a time in the 1970s, Frakes worked for
Marvel Comics, appearing at conventions in costume as Captain America.
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 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 series of the 1970s and 1980s,
including The Waltons, Eight Is Enough, The Dukes of Hazzard, Matlock and Steven Bochco's
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, 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 before
signing for the role of Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Frakes appeared in the 1986 miniseries Dream West.
He has done 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 movie Camp Nowhere.
He also reprised his role of Riker for a Next Generation cutaway on an episode of Family
Guy that also featured his co-stars Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn as their respective
roles of Picard and Worf.
Later, he again played himself on another Family Guy episode, where all seven main TNG
actors made voice appearances.
He is also one of six Star Trek actors to lend their voices to the video game Star Trek:
Captain's Chair reprising his role as Commander William T. Riker when users visit the Enterprise-D
bridge featured in the game.
Frakes is one of only two Star Trek regulars to appear on four different Star Trek series.
He has also directed episodes in three of them 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 directing career has included the films Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection.
Additionally, 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 made light of in the 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 television series at Fox, 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 the Earth in the
past.
Overall, the show was criticized and pulled off the air after it was found out that footage
showing a yeti from the Himalayas was purposely faked by the show and its producers.
The "Snowwalker" footage, as it is known, purportedly shows a yeti as it is crossing
through a valley in the Himalayas, walking in front of a Belgian couple who are traversing
the area on skis.
The network finally admitted the hoax, and Frakes distanced himself from the show.
He hosted Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction which also dealt in 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.
Frakes has directed episodes of Burn Notice, Castle, NCIS: Los Angeles, Leverage, Falling
Skies and most recently Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
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 and Francis owned a home furnishings store in Belfast, Maine, called The Cherished Home
which closed in August 2012 due to Francis being too busy with her acting to spend adequate
time at the store.
Frakes was also the voice of Finn the Human's adult version in the episodes "Puhoy" and
"Dungeon Train" on Adventure Time.
Selected acting filmography Directing filmography
Feature films Star Trek: Klingon – interactive movie
Star Trek: First Contact Star Trek: Insurrection
Clockstoppers Thunderbirds
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
Television Star Trek: The Next Generation
3.16 - The Offspring 4.07 - Reunion
4.21 - The Drumhead 5.18 - Cause and Effect
6.09 - The Quality of Life 6.20 - The Chase
7.08 - Attached 7.14 - Sub Rosa
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 3.02 - The Search, Part II
3.08 - Meridian 3.13 - Past Tense, Part II
Star Trek: Voyager 2.03 - Projections
2.07 - Parturition 2.13 - Prototype
Diagnosis Murder 3.18 - Left-Handed Murder
Roswell 1.07 - River Dog
1.19 - Four Square 1.21 - The White Room
3.04 - Secrets and Lies 3.08 - Behind the Music
Masters of Science Fiction The Discarded
Leverage 1.07 - The Wedding Job
1.11 - The Juror #6 Job 2.04 - The Fairy Godparents Job
2.11 - The Bottle Job 3.02 - The Reunion Job
3.06 - The Studio Job 3.13 - The Morning After Job
4.09 - The Queen's Gambit Job 4.12 - The Office Job
4.15 - The Lonely Hearts Job 5.03 - The First Contact Job
5.05 - The Gimme a K Street Job
Dollhouse 2.04 - Belonging
Castle 2.08 - Kill the Messenger
5.06 - The Final Frontier 5.20 - The Fast and the Furriest
NCIS: Los Angeles 1.14 - LD50
2.11 - Disorder 3.16 - Blye, K.
4.10 - Free Ride 5.02 - Impact
V 1.07 - John May
Persons Unknown 1.05 - Incoming
1.10 - Seven Sacrifices 1.11 - And Then There Was One
The Good Guys 1.09 - Don't Taze Me, Bro
1.16 - Silence of the Dan
The Glades 1.08 - Marriage Is Murder
2.04 - Moonlighting 4.02 - Shot Girls
Burn Notice 4.14 - Hot Property
5.06 - Enemy Of My Enemy 5.17 - Acceptable Loss
6.09 - Official Business 7.06 - All or Nothing
Bar Karma 1.09 Three Times a Lady
Falling Skies 3.09 Journey to Xilbalba
4.06 Door Number Three
King & Maxwell 1.08 Job Security
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
1.08 The Well
Switched at Birth 3.06 The Scream
References
External links Jonathan Frakes at the Internet Movie Database
Jonathan Frakes at the TCM Movie Database Jonathan Frakes at AllMovie
Jonathan Frakes on Twitter Jonathan Frakes profile at NNDB
Jonathan Frakes in-depth interview at The SCI FI Channel Australia Blog