Gates McFadden

Gates McFadden was born as Cheryl Gates McFadden on March 2, 1953 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The date of her birth cannot be confirmed as she has given a number of different dates as her birthday, including August 26, 1953 to Paramount, and August 28, 1949 to a Star Trek fan magazine. March 2, 1953 is what she most recently confirmed as correct and is what she admitted to when confronted about the controversy. She was interested in the stage from a young age for both acting and dancing. At eight, she started taking acting lessons and although she was rarely cast as the "girly lead", she frequently landed supporting comic roles which sustained her interest in theater. As a dancer, she learned from a number of untraditional teachers and instead of going out on Friday nights like her peers, she practiced unicycle riding and kick-line dancing.

For high school she was enrolled in a prep school which enabled her to both pursue her academic and theatrical interests. Gates earned her BA cum laude in theater arts from Brandeis University and after graduating she went to France to study at Jacques LeCoq's Ecole Mime et Theatre where she primarily studied acting. When she returned to the United States, she based herself in New York and won lead roles in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, How to say Goodbye, and Cloud Nine, appeared in The Muppets Take Manhattan and choreographed and worked on puppet movement for Labyrinth. During this time she used her real name, Cheryl, for her work and taught at Brandeis, the New York University Graduate School, and the University of Pittsburgh.

She didn't seek out her role on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Gates had a few hours to kill in Los Angeles before a flight back to the east coast after an audition and her agent suggested she try out for one of the women's roles on the show, but she only had time to read for one so she read for Dr. Crusher. When she found out she received the role, she initially turned it down to appear in The Matchmaker with Linda Hunt at the La Jolla Playhouse. Like many of the other members of the cast, Paramount and the producers finally convinced her. In her words, "What I finally decided was that it wasn't a role that would further my acting career, but that it would allow me to have a baby and bring my baby to work, because I would have a steady income and a steady place to go."

Although Gates had limited screen experience, she eventually found her place in the cast and on the set. She was very fascinated with her props and insisted on finding out how the tricorder, hypospray, atomic analysers and laser surgery equipment operated. Although her first season had a lot of positive highlights, the most significant event of the season occurred when she was fired from the cast.

According to Rick Berman,"There were those that believed at the end of the first season that they didn't like the way the character was developing, vis-à-vis Gates' performance and managed to convince Mr. Roddenberry of that." Although even Patrick Stewart was satisfied with her replacement, Diana Muldaur as Dr. Katherine Pulaski, everyone was very glad when she returned to the show. The truth behind her leave is unclear, but she said she was glad to return for the third season. During her hiatus she kept busy, and even appeared in The Hunt For Red October. When she returned to Star Trek, she was still a lesser character until the fourth season when story lines began to revolve around her and she had a chance to establish herself.

Over the summer hiatus from Star Trek on June 10, 1991, her son James Cleveland McFadden Talbot was born to her and her husband, John. She frequently brought him on the set of the show and Brent Spiner is his godfather.

At the end of her run with Star Trek, she commented, "This year has been my best, without any doubt. It's been a wonderful period in my life. I didn't have a family when I started the show and now I do. I've also made very close friends. My life has been enriched by the entire experience and now I'm excited about the future." Gates has been in all of the Star Trek films since (up to Nemesis, at least).

Since her run with Star Trek she's taken on a number of other projects in addition to the Star Trek films. Gates currently lives in Hawaii and has recorded several audio books, did voice acting for a radio play of War of the Worlds, and has played parts on Mad About You. In March, 1996 she performed with the USO in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She continues to act on stage and occasionally makes appearances on television.

Sources:
http://karen_page.tripod.com/hugegatesbio.html
http://www.startrek.com/library/bios.asp?ID=69068
http://us.imdb.com/Name?McFadden,+Gates