Paris, born into a long line of distinguished
Starfleet officers, had a troubled relationship with the high
expectations of his father, an admiral, who joined his friends and
teachers to praise him as a child but remained tough and remote, telling
him for instance that crying was a sign of weakness. He managed to
graduate from Starfleet Academy after a stormy four years, almost
failing stellar cartography as a freshman; he chose Marseilles, France
as the site of his physical training second semester. He did hone his
natural aptitude for piloting skills on craft large and small and proved
adept at holo-engineering.
Despite his family legacy, Paris buckled under
to the self-imposed pressure and tried to cover-up an error that caused
the deaths of three officers at Caldik Prime; it was only his
self-confession at the point he would have been exonerated
that netted him a discharge rather than harsher punishment. After
leaving Starfleet he turned to the Maquis for fulfillment as a fighter
pilot, but was captured by Starfleet on his first mission and this time
was sentenced to the Federation Penal Settlement near Auckland, New
Zealand, wearing an alarm anklet.
Paris was given a reprieve of sorts in early
237,1 when he was temporarily released from the rehab colony and given a
second chance by Captain Janeway, who needed him to scout her new
starship through the Badlands in search of her lost security chief who
had been undercover among a Maquis crew Paris had served with, led by
former Lt. Cmdr. Chakotay. Had he successfully completed the mission
Paris could have applied for permanent parole, but ironically he and the
rest of the Voyager crew are missing and presumed lost in the
Badlands plasma storms, last contact SD.
In later counseling, Paris revealed an
unsatisfying relationship with women that has fostered no long-term
associations, including a relationship with Susie Crabtree as an Academy
freshman and a French woman, "Ricky," met during his Marseilles
semester. He also has an affinity for antique Earth ground vehicles and
Terran American history and culture, especially of the 20th century, and
has enjoyed sailing in true life and in holo-programs. |
Trek fans will
remember that McNeill ("Robbie" to his friends) actually came to the
franchise before Voyager, playing Cadet First Class Nicholas
Locarno, the charismatic but reckless leader of Starfleet Academy's Nova
Squadron, in the 1992 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The
First Duty." McNeill returned in Voyager in 1995 as the disgraced
Tom Paris, a renegade officer with a penchant for doing things his own
way. Watching the character's evolution on the show made for one of
Voyager's most interesting arcs. Paris went from a guy who was only
out for himself to a dedicated crewmember, friend, husband and (in the
series finale) father. McNeill gave the evolution an extra bit of
dimension — Tom Paris may have grown up, but he never lost his roguish
spark.
Paris had a lot of good storylines over the
years, but the best two were on completely opposite ends of the
spectrum. On the one hand, we've got his holodeck adventures as "Captain
Proton," which captured the classic black-and-white madness of old
sci-fi film serials. On the other, we've got his difficult, touching
courtship with B'Elanna Torres. Things almost never ran quite smoothly
between these two, and that's what made their relationship so compelling.
Born
in North Carolina and raised in Washington, D.C., McNeill's family
finally settled in Atlanta, Georgia. After attending a local high
school, Robert decided to move to New York City to become an actor.
After a number of chorus roles and small parts, he enrolled in The
Juilliard School, where he spent two years studying the trade.
While attending Juilliard, Robert was cast as
Charlie Brent on the popular ABC daytime drama All My Children.
From 1984 through 1986, McNeill became a favorite in the world of
daytime soaps, his efforts earning him a Daytime Emmy nomination. During
this time, he also produced and starred in an off-Broadway play, and
starred in the science fiction feature film "Masters of the Universe,"
alongside Dolph Lundgren, Courtney Cox and Frank Langella (a Deep
Space Nine guest star).
After leaving All My Children, McNeill
landed a starring role in the national touring production of Stephen
Sondheim's hit Broadway musical "Into the Woods." The tour would
ultimately bring him to Los Angeles for a six-month run, and it would be
here that he would finally put down roots with his new wife, Carol.
While L.A. was to become home, his career
continued to take him back to the Big Apple. He returned to New York to
appear in many plays on and off-Broadway. While there, he and Carol
founded Real Play Productions, an organization that provides inner-city
school children with creative ways of dealing with crises and issues
they face on a daily basis.
His favorite and perhaps most memorable
performance was in Lincoln Center's critically acclaimed production of "Six
Degrees of Separation," which also starred Stockard Channing. McNeill
played the role of Rick, a kid from Utah whose suicide is the turning
point of the play.
McNeill soon moved back to Los Angeles and
appeared in numerous television series including Quantum Leap
starring Scott Bakula, LA Law and Murder, She Wrote. After
his TNG gig and before Voyager, McNeill landed a starring
role in the ABC series Going to Extremes. His credits also
include recurring roles on ABC's Homefront, and on CBS's
Second Chances with Connie Selleca. He also appeared as Romeo in
"Romeo and Juliet" at the Ford Theater in Hollywood, earning a
Dramalogue Award as Best Actor for that performance.
New Career Direction
In the third season of Voyager, McNeill
added "director" to his creative title, following in the footsteps of
prior Trek actors such as Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton.
McNeill made his directorial debut with "Sacred Ground," and that effort
was so successful that he was subsequently chosen to direct "Unity," a
momentous episode which introduced the Borg on Voyager. He went
on to helm the immensely popular episodes "Someone to Watch Over Me" and
"Body and Soul," and then returned to the Paramount lot not long after
to direct four episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, including the
highly acclaimed third-season "Twilight." McNeill was the first of the
Voyager ensemble to step behind the camera, and he was soon
followed by several of his castmates, including onscreen wife Roxann
Dawson.
McNeill is now one of the most in-demand
directors in television. His name has graced the credits of numerous TV
shows such as the scandalously popular Desperate Housewives
starring Teri Hatcher ("Lt. Robinson"), along with Las Vegas with
Nikki Cox ("Sarjenka ") and Dawson's Creek, The O.C., Supernatural,
Medium and The Knights of Prosperity, plus critical
darlings One Tree Hill, Everwood and Bryan Fuller's Dead Like
Me.
He worked with John Billingsley in an episode
of The Nine, and then with Billingsley's wife Bonita Friedericy
("Rooney") in several episodes of Chuck. "It's a lot of fun for
me because it has that kind of nerd, geek, comedy action stuff that I
love doing," McNeill said about Chuck at a recent Star Trek
convention.
And then he helped launch one of the most
successful new sitcoms of the 2007-08 season. McNeill directed the pilot
of Samantha Who? starring Christina Applegate, which emerged from
the starting gate as the highest-rated new comedy of the season. A
full-season pickup from ABC now means steady work for regular Tim Russ —
whom McNeill may have had a little something to do with casting. (As of
this update in Nov. '07, however, there were questions whether
Samantha and other new shows could weather the loss of momentum
caused by the Writers Guild strike.)
McNeill has also produced and directed a number
of independent projects, including the short films "The Battery" and
"9mm of Love," both starring Ethan Phillips. "Battery" won Best Short
Film at the New York International Independent Film Festival, and "9mm"
aired on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Robbie and Carol reside in Los Angeles with
their three children, daughter Taylor and sons Kyle and Carter.
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