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Wil Wheaton

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Wil Wheaton (2001)

Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972 in Burbank, California) is an American writer, actor, and geek icon. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and Gordie LaChance in the film Stand By Me.

Biography

Like many actors who were popular from their work in the Star Trek franchise, much of Wheaton's career has been limited to Trek-oriented appearances. During his youth, he was a prominently featured guest at Star Trek conventions and very popular in teen magazines.

In the late 1990s, he embraced work in independent film, appearing in a number of roles. Several of his independent films have won awards: The Good Things, in which Wheaton portrays a frustrated Kansas tollbooth worker, was selected Best Short Film at the 2002 Deauville Film Festival. He also received the Best Actor award at the 2002 Melbourne Underground Film Festival for his performance in Jane White is Sick and Twisted. He was also a contestant on a Star Trek-themed episode of The Weakest Link, and performs improvisational and sketch comedy at the ACME Comedy Theater in Hollywood. He has a travelling sketch comedy/improv troupe called "EarnestBorg9" that performs Sci-Fi and geek-related comedy at conventions.

Although his character (and by extension Wil himself) was loudly hated by a small but vocal group of Trekkers (see Usenet group alt.ensign.wesley.die.die.die or alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die) during TNG's first run, Wheaton has emerged as a vocal member of the geek / nerd community and runs his own weblog, Wil Wheaton Dot Net. The majority of his present popularity comes from this web site, the books it has spawned, and from fans who admire his earlier work. He is a frequent poster at Digg, Slashdot and Fark, and is heavily involved with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, promoting free speech and privacy issues. Wil also contributes regularly to the Los Angeles-based Metroblogging site. His work as a voice actor can be found in such diverse places as Aqualad of the cartoon Teen Titans and, most recently, as the voice of radio newsman Richard Burns in the popular Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game.

Wheaton married Anne Prince in 1999. He lives with his wife and two step-sons in Los Angeles, California. Wheaton is often confused with Will Wheaton Jr., a jazz musician who contributed to the film Mystery Men, among other works.

Wil Wheaton meets Tim O'Reilly at the 2003 booksigning of Dancing Barefoot at Powell's in Portland, Oregon

In the spring of 2003, Wheaton founded the independent publishing company Monolith Press and released a book of his memoirs, entitled Dancing Barefoot. "Monolith Press was founded on the idea that publication should not be limited by opportunity."[1] At the time of this writing, the only book published is Dancing Barefoot. Most of the entries are extended versions of his online blog entries. Wheaton sold out three printings in four months, and in the winter of 2003, the book's success caught the eye of publisher Tim O'Reilly, who signed Wheaton to a three book contract. O'Reilly acquired Dancing Barefoot, and published Wheaton's extended memoirs, Just A Geek, in summer of 2004.

Wil had a monthly column entitled "Wil Save" in the Dungeons and Dragons based magazine Dungeon, where he related anecdotal tales of his life in relation to the famous fantasy RPG. He ceased writing the column in May 2005. In January 2005, Wil began a column about video games in The Onion and in June 2005 became the feature Geek editor for the SuicideGirls Newswire.

File:CSI-Wil.jpg
Wil Wheaton's character Walter on CSI (2005)

In February 2005, Wil announced that he had won the role of a one-off character, the crack-addicted homeless man Walter, on CSI (Episode #5.17: "Compulsion" March 10 2005). A March 10 New York Times column by John Schwartz [2] portrayed Wil's role in a highly favorable light. Duane Clark, director of the episode, is quoted as saying "[Wil brought] a lot of scary volatility [to the role]. He really dug his teeth into it, and on his own came up with a backstory of who Walter was. He really filled out what could have been a caricature."

In 2003, Wheaton began noting on his blog his love for the game of poker. The following year, Wheaton began writing more extensively about his poker-playing experiences, including stories about playing Texas hold 'em tournaments locally and in Las Vegas. Eventually, Wheaton worked up to regular play, including a notable run at the 2005 World Poker Tour Championships. On June 23, 2005, Wil accepted an invitation to join Team PokerStars [3]. He went on to play in that year's World Series of Poker.

As of April 2006, Wil has been signed on to the new Nickelodeon cartoon, kyle + rosemary, as the titular Kyle.

Trivia

  • Wesley Crusher's name first appeared on Usenet in 1987 as a quote attached to a signature in the comp.os.cpm group. see the post here
  • Wheaton's Geek Code:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12 GPA d-- s+: a C+++ UL+++ P+>+++ L+++ E--- W+++ N+ o+ K+++ w-- O---- M+ V-- PS++(+++) PE Y++ PGP++>+++ t++@$ 5++ X+ R+ tv- b++ DI+ D++ G++ e h---- r+++ y+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Of note, the "t++@$" tag for Star Trek decodes to:
It's the best show around. I have all the episodes and the movies on tape and can quote entire scenes verbatim. I've built a few of the model kits too. But you'll never catch me at one of those conventions. Those people are kooks. But that varies... Getting paid for it!
  • Wil Wheaton is also very fond of the game NetHack.
  • MC Frontalot's song "Penny Arcade Theme" contains the lyric "with coins in hand you've got more game than Wil Wheaton".[4]

Filmography

Movies

Television

Incorrectly attributed to Wil Wheaton

Numerous sources incorrectly list (or, as in the case of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), listed) Wil Wheaton as providing "additional voices" in the Disney animated feature Brother Bear. The voice actor is "Willie Wheaton", who is not the same person as Wil Wheaton. [5]

Video games

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wil Wheaton.

jp:Wil Wheaton

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