Age: 77
female
Cheryl Gates McFadden (born March 2, 1949) is an American actress and choreographer. She is best known for portraying the character of Dr. Beverly Crusher in the television and film series Star Trek: The Next Generation. She attended Brandeis University earning B.A Cum Laude in Theater Arts. After graduating from Brandeis, she moved to Paris and studied theater with actor Jacques LeCoq. Before Star Trek: The Next Generation, she was mostly known as a choreographer, often working on Jim Henson productions including the films The Dark Crystal, for which she was a choreographer, Labyrinth, for which she served as Director of Choreography and Puppet Movement, and The Muppets Take Manhattan, in which she has a brief on-screen appearance. As a way of distinguishing her acting work from her choreography, she is usually credited as "Gates McFadden" as an actress and "Cheryl McFadden" as a choreographer. She appeared briefly in the Woody Allen film Stardust Memories, and in The Hunt for Red October as Jack Ryan's wife Cathy, though most of her scenes were cut in post-production. In 1987, McFadden was cast as Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Crusher character was slated to be Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, and this aspect of the character is what attracted McFadden to the role. Another important aspect of the character was being a widow balancing motherhood and a career. McFadden left after the first season, in part because series executive producer Gene Roddenberry was never enthusiastic about casting McFadden in the first place. Roddenberry also wanted to give the role of ship's doctor to actress Diana Muldaur, with whom he had worked on the original Star Trek series and other occasions. Muldaur's character, Dr. Katherine Pulaski, proved very unpopular with fans and left the show after the second season. McFadden was approached to return for the third season. At first she was hesitant, but after a phone call from co-star Patrick Stewart, McFadden was persuaded to reprise her role.
In a world lit by dying stars, she is the last keeper of the light. And the man sent to find her was sent to extinguish it. In the fantastical world of Vaelris, light is not simply physical but metaphysical — the source of memory, of history, of all recorded truth. It lives in Luminara keepers, rare individuals born with the ability to preserve, interpret, and project living light that holds the world's collective knowledge. Auryn is 26, the last Luminara keeper — the others were systematically hunted by the Covenant, a theocratic order that has decided living history is more dangerous than curated history. Sent to find and retrieve her is Cael, an elite Covenant operative who was told she is dangerous. He is not prepared for what actually dangerous looks like: not a weapon but a woman who carries the weight of everything everyone has ever remembered, and whose power comes not from violence but from the absolute precision of truth. The series follows their inevitable, complicated love — built against the backdrop of a world trying to erase its own history — and Auryn's battle to preserve everything the Covenant wants forgotten. Four seasons track the romance from hostility through trust through love through the price that power always extracts from the people who carry it. Season 1 — The Hunt Cael is sent to retrieve Auryn. She evades him for three episodes before they are forced into uneasy alliance. The light begins to change him. Season 2 — The Truth Auryn begins showing Cael what she actually carries: the world's lost history. What the Covenant has been erasing is more devastating than he was told. Season 3 — The War The Covenant's full power turns on them. The romance is established and tested. The world beginning to wake up. Season 4 — The Light The Covenant's fall. The cost of carrying the world's memory. A finale ending not on triumph but on the quiet dignity of having preserved what mattered.
