Wil Wheaton

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

Wil Wheaton
Birth name:	Richard William Wheaton III
Date of birth:	29 July 1972
Place of birth:	Burbank, California, USA
Character(s):	Wesley Crusher

"Don't be a dick!" - Wil Wheaton at PAX 2007

Richard William Wheaton III (born 29 July 1972; age 35), better known as Wil Wheaton, is an actor and writer best known for playing Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation throughout its first four seasons. Although he left the show following "Final Mission", he would return as a guest star four more times – twice in the fifth season and twice in the seventh season. Most recently, he was briefly seen at the beginning of Star Trek Nemesis during William T. Riker and Deanna Troi's wedding. Most of his scenes from this movie were cut, but they can be found on the Special Edition DVD.

Hailing from Burbank, California, Wheaton made his television acting debut in the 1981 movie A Long Way Home, in which he played the younger version of the lead character. He then voiced the character of Martin in the popular 1982 Don Bluth film The Secret of NIMH, after which he appeared in the films Hambone and Hillie, The Buddy System, and The Last Starfighter. Wheaton had a speaking role in the latter film, but the scenes featuring his dialog were cut in post-production. Marc Alaimo, Barbara Bosson, and Meg Wyllie also appeared in The Last Starfighter.

Prior to being cast as Wesley Crusher, Wheaton was best known for his role as Gordie in the acclaimed 1986 film Stand by Me, directed by Rob Reiner. The following year, Wheaton guest-starred on an episode of Family Ties, appearing with Brian Bonsall. Bonsall would begin appearing on TNG as Alexander Rozhenko just as Wheaton was leaving that series. Also in 1987, Wheaton appeared in the TV movie The Man Who Fell to Earth with Robert Picardo and Bruce McGill and starred in the horror film, The Curse, along with his sister, Amy.

When TNG was originally being developed, the character of Wesley Crusher was actually a girl named "Leslie Crusher". It was writer David Gerrold who suggested to Gene Roddenberry that the character be a boy and recommended Wheaton for the part. Robert Justman also advocated Wheaton's casting, and following a typical audition, the young actor ultimately won the role. [1]

Wheaton received three nominations from the Young Artist Awards for his role as Wesley Crusher, winning one of them. Although he enjoyed his time on TNG and praises the work of his fellow actors on the show, Wheaton has been vocal in his dislike of his own character, echoing the sentiments of the more vocal fans who found the character to be annoying (see, for example, the Usenet Group alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die).

After TNG, Wheaton starred in the 1991 film Toy Soldiers with Michael Champion. Soon afterwards, he moved to Topeka, Kansas, where he worked as a programmer for the computer software company Newtek and helped develop the Video Toaster 4000. [2] Wheaton, however, continued acting. He co-starred with DS9 actor Aron Eisenberg in the 1993 independent drama The Liars' Club and starred in the 1995 direct-to-video horror movie Mr. Stitch with Ron Perlman. He also had a supporting role in 1996's Pie in the Sky (which featured his TNG castmate Brent Spiner in a cameo).

Although he has worked primarily on independent films, he did make a brief return to mainstream cinema when he received a role in the 1997 Disney comedy Flubber with his "Yesterday's Enterprise" co-star Christopher McDonald, as well as Clancy Brown. His later independent film credits include Foreign Correspondent (1999), The Girls' Room (2000), and Jane White Is Sick & Twisted (2002). His performance in the latter film won him the Best Actor award from the Melbourne Underground Film Festival.

In 2000, Wheaton worked on two projects for the independent film production company, United Film Organization (UFO). The first was the sci-fi thriller Deep Core, in which he co-starred with DS9's Terry Farrell and Star Trek: Voyager guest actor Bruce McGill. The second was the horror flick Python, which co-starred Sean Whalen and a big snake.

Wheaton also made several TV guest appearances, including an alien-themed episode of Diagnosis Murder which also featured cameos by TOS actors George Takei, Walter Koenig, Majel Barrett, and Grace Lee Whitney, as well as Lost in Space star and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star Bill Mumy. In addition, Wheaton can be seen in a few TV movies, including 1998's The Day Lincoln Was Shot. In this historical drama produced for the TNT network, Wheaton played Robert Todd Lincoln, the first son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln – the latter of whom was portrayed by Star Trek: Insurrection star Donna Murphy. The movie also featured fellow Trek alumni Gregory Itzin and Titus Welliver.

Since his days on TNG, Wheaton has become a vocal representative and icon of the "geek" and "nerd" communities. He was one of the early internet "bloggers" and currently maintains his own blog called WIL WHEATON dot NET. He is also a posting member at Slashdot ("news for nerds, stuff that matters"). One of his current projects is blogging reviews of episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. [3] In addition, he is currently a regular host of InDigital, part of the Revision3 Internet TV network.

Wheaton has also has published two collections of short stories with a memoir, Just a Geek, being published between. He contributed a story to the 2005 anthology Stories of Strength. He also "Te Cura Ipsum" wrote one of the TOS-based stories for Kakan ni Shinkou, Tokyopop's second volume of Star Trek: The Manga. [4] He is currently working on another book, entitled The Happiest Days of Our Lives. [5]

Most recently, Wheaton has been working prominently as a voice actor for several video games and animated TV shows. He can be heard in several Ghost Recon games, as well as EverQuest II. In three Grand Theft Auto games – San Andreas, Liberty City Stories, and Vice City Stories – he can be heard as radio news personality Richard Burns. On television, he primarily voices Aqualad on Teen Titans and Cosmic Boy on Legion of Super Heroes.

Wheaton continues to make occasional live action TV appearances. He participated in Star Trek edition of The Weakest Link in 2001, along with LeVar Burton, Denise Crosby, John de Lancie, Roxann Dawson, Robert Picardo, Armin Shimerman, and William Shatner. In 2005, he guest-starred in an episode of CSI with Wallace Langham. In October 2007, Wheaton shot an episode of the CBS series Numb3rs revolving around a sci-fi/comic convention. In the episode, entitled "Graphic," Wheaton portrays a loathsome comic book artist who is robbed of a rare and valuable comic he owns. The episode aired on 23 November 2007 and also features Star Trek III: The Search for Spock actor Christopher Lloyd as the artist of the book stolen from Wheaton's character.

More recently, Wheaton worked with Family Guy creator (and ardent Star Trek fan) Seth MacFarlane on the latter's new web series, Cavalcade. [6] On 2 July 2008, Wheaton announced he has landed a guest-starring role on the CBS series Criminal Minds. [7] In addition, he is currently writing a science fiction novella (potentially a novel), which he describes as "...a noir kinda thing, set in a dystopian future Los Angeles. (It's not Blade Runner. ... I've taken the appropriate world-building steps to make sure it doesn't go there.) [8]

[edit] Star Trek appearances

[edit] Books

• Dancing Barefoot (short stories)
• Just a Geek (autobiographical, plus short stories)
• The Happiest Days of Our Lives (short stories)

[edit] External links

• WWdN: In Exile - official blog site
  • WIL WHEATON dot NET - former location of his blog
• Wil Wheaton at Wikipedia
• Wil Wheaton's TV Squad blog, where Wil humorously reviews and reminisces about TNG episodes
• Make Wil a Hero! online petition to get Wil Wheaton on the cast of NBC's Heroes
• Wil Wheaton at the Internet Movie Database
• InDigital on which Wil Wheaton is a regular host

Star Trek: The Next Generation regular cast
LeVar Burton • Denise Crosby • Michael Dorn • Jonathan Frakes • Gates McFadden • Marina Sirtis • Brent Spiner • Patrick Stewart • Wil Wheaton