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Hawking with Brent Spiner on the set
... as himself
Template:Disambiguate Stephen Hawking (born 8 January 1942; age 82) is a noted scientist. Confined to a wheelchair by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease), he communicates by means of an electronic vocal synthesizer. He is famous for formulating several theories regarding the nature of black holes, often working with colleague Kip Thorne, and for his best-selling science books including A Brief History of Time.
Hawking is the only person, to date, to have played himself on Star Trek (excluding historical people who have appeared via stock footage), appearing as his own holographic counterpart in the Star Trek: The Next Generation sixth season episode "Descent" in 1993. Whilst filming the episode, Hawking was taken on a tour of the engineering set; indicating the warp core, he said, "I'm working on that." (Star Trek Encyclopedia) On a subsequent visit to the set, he passed by actor Brent Spiner and asked where his money was from winning the hand of poker. Spiner replied that the check was in the mail. Hawking was interviewed on 8 April 1993 when he filmed his Trek appearance. This interview was part of the TNG Season 6 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Six" - "Descent - Part 1 Featuring Stephen Hawking".
Hawking visited the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine set during the filming of "The House of Quark". In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, Armin Shimerman describes meeting Dr. Hawking as one of the high points of his life.
Hawking has also played himself on Futurama, The Simpsons, and The Big Bang Theory, and appeared in a Red Dwarf documentary. In 2010 he co-authored The Grand Design with former Star Trek: The Next Generation story editor and writer of the episode "The Dauphin" Leonard Mlodinow.
Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed Hawking in the 2004 TV movie Hawking, which also featured Alice Eve.
External links
- Hawking.org.uk - official site
- Stephen Hawking at Wikipedia
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