British theoretical physicist (1942–2018) who appeared as a hologram of himself in The Next Generation episode Descent, the only person to play himself in the series.
Stephen Hawking was a British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, born in 1942, celebrated for his work on black holes and for the best-selling book A Brief History of Time.
A fan of Star Trek, he visited the Paramount lot in 1993 and asked whether he might appear in the programme. The producers wrote a scene for him at the start of Descent, the sixth-season finale of The Next Generation, broadcast in June 1993.
In the scene Data runs a holodeck programme in which he plays poker with three great physicists: Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Hawking, who wins the hand. Hawking remains the only person to have played himself in a Star Trek series. He died in 2018.