[biography] [credits]

BIOGRAPHY:

Dark-haired actor and singer from the musical stage who began making headway on TV in small roles at the end of the 1970s. After off-Broadway work ranging from Leave It to Beaver Is Dead (1979) to The Sea Gull (1980), Spiner made it to Broadway in 1978 in A History of the American Film and later played two supporting roles in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's award-winning musical biography of pointillist painter Georges Seurat, Sunday in the Park with George (1984). Later that same year he ventured onto the Great White Way in one of the title roles of another musical, but his Aramis of the musicalized The Three Musketeers unfortunately only swashed his buckles for two weeks before the show closed. Spiner followed as The Duke in the award-winning Big River, Roger Miller's adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in 1985.

Television ultimately proved to be Spiner's road to fame when he was cast as Data on the syndicated smash, Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94). Initial temptations to cringe at the thought of his greenish-gold android character being an uninspired parallel to Leonard Nimoy's similarly logical and unemotional Spock from the original series quickly vanished as Spiner and the show's writers sensitively explored the difficulties of being a living machine. Spiner's character became a kind of Pinocchio, eagerly, quizzically boyish as he ventured increasingly further into the realm of humanity. He reprised the role for the popular feature film, Star Trek: Generations (1995) and its sequels Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) .

Also in 1995, Spiner portrayed scientists in two high profile features: in Independence Day, he was an eccentric aiding in the fight against invading aliens, while in Phenomenon, he was a low-key traditionalist. The following year, he gave an hilarious turn as a controlling cruise director in the uneven comedy Out to Sea. In 1999 he played black 1950s movie star Dorothy Dandridge's sensitive manager and lover Earl Mills opposite Halle Berry in the HBO telepic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Over the next few years Spiner brought his distinctive spark to a succession of supporting roles in TV movies and films such as Gepetto (2000), Dude, Where's My Car? (2000) and I Am Sam (2001). His next major role came in 2002 as Dana Carvey's arch-enemy in the silly comedy Master of Disguise, which he followed by reprising the pivotal role of Data and his android doppleganger B4 in Star Trek: Nemesis.

Returning to Broadway in March 2003, Spiner is currently starring alongside Helen Hunt, John Turturro and Linda Emond in Life (X) 3.

Source: Hollywood.com