Gates McFadden

(American film, stage, television actress
Best known for her Star Trek: The Next Generation sci-fi series)

* * *

Born |  March 2, 1949
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Spouse |  John Talbot

Cheryl Gates McFadden (born March 2, 1949 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio), is known for being a prominent actress in American television, film and theater. Gates McFadden is an accomplished dancer and she is also a choreographer, being credited under her name Cheryl McFadden when working as a choreographer and Gates McFadden when working as an actress. McFadden is most known for her role as Dr. Beverly Crusher throughout six of the seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and in four Star Trek theatrical films. McFadden also directed the Star Trek: The Next Generation seventh season episode "Genesis" and choreographed the dance routine in the fourth season episode "Data's Day". McFadden is notable for her fiery red hair, startling blue eyes, and razor cheekbones. Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) in the theatre arts at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Mcfadden then moved to Paris to focus on studies in theatre with actor Jacques Lecoq at his school. McFadden is of Lithuanian descent on her mother's side.

## Contents

* 1 Film Television and theater career
* 2 Family and teaching
* 3 Filmography
* 3.1 Film
* 3.2 Television
* 4 External links

## Film Television and theater career[edit]

McFadden has publicly expressed being fond about acting on stage while performing for an audience. One of McFadden's favorite credits was the Shakespeare work she did in New York and "To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday".

Early on in her career on camera McFadden appeared as the character Tammy Dryden for 5 episodes in the TV series "The Edge of Night" during the 1982 season. McFadden also appeared in a 1983 TV commercial for the National Enquirer tabloid magazine.

Cheryl Gates McFadden and Jennifer Connelly during a break from the ballroom scene on the 1986 film "Labyrinth".

McFadden often worked at The Jim Henson Company, working behind the scenes of the 1986 film "Labyrinth" starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly (as director of choreography and puppet movement). McFadden was also choreographer for the film "The Muppets Take Manhattan", which also featured a brief, first on-screen film appearance as an actress, playing Dabney Coleman's secretary.

After a few small guest spot TV appearances, including her appearance in the season-three episode of The Cosby Show, "Cliff's 50th Birthday", McFadden would go on to bigger and better things.

In 1987 McFadden auditioning for Star Trek: The Next Generation, walked in and was told they had three roles, and she could play any part she wanted. McFadden asked, "Which one is the funniest?" Beverly Crusher, after looking at the scene from the episode "The Naked Now" McFadden interprets it as funny because Beverly is kind of drunk in the script she reads from the fictional polywater intoxication. McFadden thought, "This is funny" and chose to read for the role, landing it.

McFadden's character Beverly Crusher, first appeared in the first episode "Encounter at Farpoint" for Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. Early on in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series, Beverly and Jean-Luc Picard experienced several romantically close calls. Once was under the influence of the Psi 2000 polywater intoxication, where Crusher openly flirted with Picard attempting to gain his attention romantically by unzipping her uniform top in front of him on the bridge of the Enterprise. Only a few episodes later Picard invited Beverly onto the holodeck to participate in a Dixon Hill private investigator story from earth's past. The story line includes Picard being noticeably attracted to Beverly wearing her 1940's era clothing telling her "You wear it well."

McFadden left the the Star Trek: The Next Generation series at the end of the first season in early 1988 and was replaced by Diana Muldaur as Doctor Katherine Pulaski in the second season. McFadden received a call from her agent who told her that the producers of the Star Trek series decided to go in another direction with the Beverly character. Like the other cast members, McFadden was surprised. McFadden states that she was fired. Stating it was a lesson learned that she was too vocal to the show's producers and writing staff regarding some of the writing on The Next Generation being sexist, and was un-savvy at the time regarding Paramount studio politics. Ultimately, McFadden felt that she spoke her mind "in a way that made the staff mad, notably head writer and show-runner Maurice Hurley. Hurley was blamed for the firing of Gates McFadden, who played the role of Dr. Beverly Crusher, at the end of the show's first season. Executive producer Rick Berman recalled that Hurley "had a real bone to pick" with McFadden, that he did not like her acting and really didn't like Gates McFadden personally essentially hating to work with her.

Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher in a poster from Star Trek: The Next Generation

But thanks to a letter-writing campaign, support from Patrick Stewart, and a personal invitation from Executive producer Rick Berman, McFadden was brought back to the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast for the third and subsequent seasons. This was all after McFadden was absent for every episode of the second season, except for the last episode "Shades of Gray", which contained archived footage for flashback scenes from season one of Dr.Crusher.

Starting in 1988 after the first season of her exit from Star Trek: The Next Generation, McFadden began playing the recurring role of Dr. Lisa Mallory on the soap opera "All My Children".

During her break from Star Trek: The Next Generation, McFadden played Caroline Ryan (another doctor with a husband named Jack) in the movie "The Hunt for Red October". She returned to Manhattan for the break where she performed in a play and took up improvisation at the New York University's Graduate School of the Arts.

McFadden became pregnant with her and her husband (John Talbot) first and only child during the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, learning of the pregnancy only days after performing her own stunts for the episode "Remember Me".

In a 2017 tweet by Gates McFadden she stated "All that red hair was under a wig!!! #WhyCrusher looked like she wore #footballhelmet". McFadden hid her own hair under a wig, requiring more than an hour of preparation time before each day of shooting Star Trek: The Next Generation.

McFadden appeared in the TV Series "L.A. Law" for one episode during her Star Trek TV days.

In 1995 and after the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series and first feature film "Star Trek:Generations", McFadden appearing as a series regular for 13 episode on the TV series "Marker" playing the character Kimba. McFadden also appeared in four episodes of the NBC sitcom "Mad About You" as the character Allison Rourke.

McFadden has appeared in numerous guest and even a recurring role from 2011-2013 on the TV series "Franklin & Bash" as Judge Mallory Jacobs.

## Family and teaching[edit]

McFadden is married to John Talbot. Her son is named James Cleveland McFadden-Talbot, he was born on June 10, 1991. Although the directors were able to hide her pregnancy behind objects and her character Dr. Beverly Crusher's trademark blue lab coat, it was briefly visible in some episodes, including "The Host". Her son was born over hiatus; Brent Spiner who plays Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation is her son's godfather.

McFadden was present to support longtime co-star and close friend Patrick Stewart when he was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 16, 1996 in Hollywood, California.

Teaching positions for McFadden have included New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Brandeis University, University of Pittsburgh, AADA, Harvard, The Stella Academy in Hamburg, and University of Southern California (USC) where she was awarded the George Burns Teaching Fellowship. McFadden built the AVT Theatre in Los Angeles when she was Artistic Director of Ensemble Studio Theatre LA.

## Filmography[edit]

### Film[edit]

* The Dark Crystal (1982)
* The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
* Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985)
* Dreamchild (1985)
* When Nature Calls (1985)
* Labyrinth (1986) – (choreographer)
* The Hunt for Red October (film) (1990)
* Taking Care of Business (film) (1990)
* Beyond the Groove (1990) film TV.
* Star Trek Generations (1994)
* Star Trek First Contact (1996)
* Crowned and Dangerous (1997)
* Star Trek Insurrection (1998)
* Star Trek Nemesis (2002)
* Dirty (film) (2005)
* Make the Yuletide Gay (2009)

### Television[edit]

* The Wizard (TV series) (1986) episode "El Dorado"
* The Cosby Show (1987) episode "Cliff's 50th Birthday"
* Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1988; 1989–1994)
* L.A. Law (1992) episode "Steal It Again, Sam"
* Dream On (TV series) (1993) episode "The Book, the Thief, Her Boss and His Lover"
* Party of Five (1994) episode "Something Out of Nothing"
* Marker (TV series) (1995)
* Mad About You (1995–1996) four episodes
* The Practice (2000) episode "Checkmates"
* The Division (2001) episode "Hero"
* The Handler (TV series) (2004) episode "Wedding Party"
* Family Guy (2009) episode "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" (voice)
* Franklin & Bash (2011–2013) four episodes
* Scary Endings (2016) 1 episode "U Get What U Deserve" (voice)
* A Neighbor's Deception (2017) (TV Movie, As Dr Constance Abrams)
* NCIS (2017) episode "Skeleton Crew"

## External links[edit]

* Gates McFadden at the IMDb database
* tv.com