Obviously there’s one character that Gates McFadden is always going to be known as since Dr. Beverly Crusher was one of the most iconic members of the Star Trek crew in her day and made the successful transition from the show to the movies as well. But it might be interesting to see just how many people know that she worked with the Jim Henson Company in the past and had a hand in the puppet choreography at one point. She’s been a busy woman for much of her life and despite being primarily known for this one role she’s done a great number of things since she entered show business. She’s gone back to doing puppet choreography before but she’s also been a teacher at several universities and she’s lent her voice to many an audiobook as well. One could say that Gates is rather prolific even if she hasn’t been noticed in such a big way as the rest of the cast that she worked with for so long. Like the others her legacy is pretty well secured though since Trekkies are bound to remember her for some time to come considering that she was front and center for a lot of the action that went down in The Next Generation, though at one point it was obvious that the showrunner and head writer didn’t enjoy working with her so she was axed from the show. That obviously didn’t last though.
Thanks to the fact that her replacement just didn’t work out and thanks to a call from Patrick Stewart, and a lot of fan requests, she ended up coming back and was there to stay up until the show finally went off the air. That wasn’t the end of her career but it is where a lot of people likely lost track of her. The only downside of sticking with a show for so long is that it’s bound to have an effect on getting any other big gigs later on in life. Gates managed to get by though and diversified in a way that made the act of moving on appear to be less than a hardship as she’s been doing what she wants to do for a while now and has likely been keeping herself rather busy. The fact that Star Trek: The Next Generation is now history hasn’t really been a big deal for a lot of the actors as they’ve moved on and are doing their own thing now, while some of them, such a Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart, went on to have very active careers that saw them continuing forward with other big projects that kept them well within the public eye.
The one reason why Gates has been kind of keeping a low profile and not really appearing at a lot of conventions up until 2014 was that she had a stalker at one point, which is a big issue for some actors since obviously it’s not desired and it’s bound to be a bit frightening. Some fans take things a little too seriously and tend to allow their love of a character to override their better sense and in some cases it can get kind of frightening. Because of this Gates stayed away from the conventions for a while in order to feel safe, but eventually she did start going and has had a great time reconnecting with the fans and her fellow cast members over the years as she’s integrated back into the scene insofar as the Star Trek fan base goes. Likely as not this was a big treat for the fans as well since Dr. Crusher is a character that many people happened to like for a number of reasons since not only was she a very impressive character, but she was a no-nonsense type of character as well and was also slated to be Jean-Luc’s love interest. That was one reason that a lot of people liked her, as it made her a little more appealing and a bit more tied to the story for a while, though to be fair she did manage to make the character work in a lot of ways that was more than just a love interest since she ended up being one of the most respected doctors on the show.
As of now it would appear that Gates has settled into a life that’s busy enough for her but not so overwhelming that she can’t take things at her own pace. As she’s into her 70s now it’s likely that she’s slowed down a bit and is still taking things as they come and doing her own thing, but it’s also very likely that she’s found a healthy balance between her personal and professional lives and is doing quite well.
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