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... as himself
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.
Hawking is the only person, to date, to have ever played himself on Star Trek (excluding historical people who appeared via stock footage), appearing as a hologram of himself in TNG: "Descent". When Hawking was taken on a tour of the engineering set, he indicated the warp core and said, "I'm working on that." (Star Trek Encyclopedia)
When Hawking visited the set after the filming of "Descent", he passed by actor Brent Spiner. Spiner greeted the professor and Hawking asked where his money was from winning the hand of poker. Spiner said that the check was in the mail.
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 Dauphin" Leonard Mlodinow.
Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed Hawking in the 2004 TV movie Hawking, which also featured Alice Eve.
External links
- Stephen Hawking's personal website
- Stephen Hawking at Wikipedia
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