A RARELY-SEEN TV star who was sacked and then re-hired on the same TV series during a rollercoaster moment in her career has been spotted on a low-key day in LA.
The Ohio-born screen queen, who is now 76, donned blue jeans, trainers and a gray puffer jacket as she stepped out in the winter bintanoshine.
She covered up in a stone-coloured wide-brim hat, throwing her handbag over her arm to complete her look.
Star Trek actress Gates McFadden, who played Dr Beverly Crusher in both the TV series and its four subsequent movies, left fans doing a double take as she left her blonde locks in natural waves.
In the series, she was seen with light brown hair and a sweeping fringe, often sporting fresh make-up and red lippie.
Gates, who also worked as a choreographer, kept her cosmetics minimal to let her natural beauty shine through as she ran errands.
She was seen looking relaxed as she crossed the road before she headed towards a black vehicle.
Sci-fi fans will know Gates from her 1987 role in Star Trek’s The Next Generation.
Yet things quickly turned sour after one season on screen
TELY TRAUMA
She locked horns with showrunner Maurice Hurley over her single mom character, who was also the love interest of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Gates previously admitted: “I definitely p****d off Hurley.
“Because I kept saying ‘Why is it that I’ve raised this genius kid…and yet every time there’s anything serious it’s only the male characters who talk to him?”
She also branded one episode, Angel One, as “sexist”.
Yet after her season two replacement did not tick the boxes, Gates was asked to return for the third instalment.
Her co-star Patrick Stewart’s phone call is believed to have been a key factor in her return, and she played her doctor role for the remainder of the show.
Gates starred in the four Star Trek movies as well as sequel series Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Prodigy.
Her most recent movie role was as Martha Stanford in Make The Yuletide Gay in 2009.
Yet her TV roles have taken the Marker actress to 2024.
In that year, she featured in X Men ’97 and Masters Of The Universe: Revelation.
She now anchors her own podcast, Gates McFadden Investigates – Who Do You Think You Are?
TREK COMEBACK?
Gates recently teased the prospect of reprising her iconic Star Trek role.
She told Trekcentral.net she would return again if the chance arose and said: “Oh, of course. Especially with two very different sons, I think it would be really interesting.
“And I still feel that the character was not, we never saw enough of how she actually deals with her sons. How you actually have to mentor your sons.
“She was a single parent and I know from single parents that they really are involved in the major decisions that someone goes through in their lives.
“So, yeah, I think there would be a lot of material.
“I don’t think it is going to happen particularly, but I would love it to.”
