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 and as David Xanatos in the animated series Gargoyles. Frakes also narrated the television series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, challenging viewers to discern his alternating stories of fact-based phenomena, or fabricated tales. In June 2011, Frakes narrated the History Channel documentary, Lee and Grant. Moving on to directing in recent years, Frakes directed and also starred in... Star Trek: First Contact as well as Star Trek: Insurrection. He is also the author of a book called The Abductors: Conspiracy. Frakes was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the son of Doris J. and James R. Frakes. 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.
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