- Born
- Birth nameAvery Franklin Brooks
- Height1.85 m
- Avery Franklin Brooks was born on October 2, 1948 in Evansville, Indiana to a musically talented family. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Travis Crawford, was a tenor who graduated from Tougaloo College in Mississippi in 1901. Crawford toured the country singing with the Delta Rhythm Boys in the 1930s. Brooks also is musically inclined having played jazz piano, and has performed as the great baritone/actor/scholar Paul Robeson in the play entitled "Paul Robeson". He sang the lead in the A. Anthony Davis opera "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X", and performed as "Theseus" and "Oberon" in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Washington's Arena Stage. Long affiliated with Rutgers University, he was the institution's first Black MFA graduate. Additionally, he served as the National Black Arts Festival's (NBAF) Artistic Director throughout the 1990s in Atlanta, Georgia. An actor, activist, musician, director, and educator of epic proportions, Brooks was quoted in an interview about his work with NBAF and his performances: "If I were a carpenter, I'd find a way to empower using that skill. I'm using as much as God has given--my mind, my voice, my heart, my art forms. This is the highest form of expression on the planet from God, to me, to you".- IMDb mini biography by: L. J. Allen-2
- SpouseVicki Lenora Bowen(1976 - present) (3 children)
- ChildrenAyana BrooksAsante BrooksCabral Books
- ParentsSamuel BrooksEva Lydia Crawford
- Deep baritone voice
- Shaved head and goatee
- Received his Master's degree in Fine Arts from Rutgers University, where he has been a Professor of Theatre Arts since 1976; he was inducted into Rutgers' Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 1993. Brooks normally taught his courses at Rutgers' Mason Gross School of the Arts; however, while working on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), he videotaped lessons for his students at the studio...occasionally still wearing his character's Starfleet uniform.
- He enjoys a superb relationship with Cirroc Lofton, who portrayed his son on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993).
- Has three children with his wife Vicki Bowen: Ayana, Asante and Cabral Brooks.
- Attended the closing of Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel and Casino on September 1, 2008.
- Raised in Gary, Indiana, where his family moved at age 8.
- It's the year 2000. But where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars! I don't see any flying cars! Why? Why? Why?
- On the best thing about playing a Star Trek captain: One of the reasons that I accepted, once asked to do Star Trek, was to give a single child a chance to see the long thought, to see themselves some 400 years hence. It occurred to me that we must ensure that we keep in front of children the ever-changing horizon. To let the children know that there is possibility, to let the children know that someone is not going to take away or destroy this world before they have a chance. We have to keep that in front [of them]. (September/October 2006, Star Trek Magazine issue #1)
- On how he felt about the ending of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993): The show ran for seven years. It was a long, long road. I did have some reservations initially when I read the script [for the series finale What You Leave Behind (1999)], because I thought they were going to really kill Sisko. I took that very literally, and asked the producers, "Why are you killing Sisko?" The producers told me, "Look we thought you'd be thrilled because we had made him a God!" The difference, of course, is you have Sisko with another child on the way. You still have Sisko with a young man [Jake Sisko] trying to find his way, and you make him a God! That wasn't fair. (September/October 2006, Star Trek Magazine issue #1)
- His advice to aspiring actors: Hold on to your dream. Don't let the people shake you from your dream. Don't let form become more important than the substance of your heart and mind. Don't let commerce determine what you do exclusively. (September/October 2006, Star Trek Magazine issue #1)
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