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 Benjiamin
Sisko
Originally from New Orleans, the son of a Chef, Benjamin Sisko
attended Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. He rose rapidly through
the ranks and was a Commander on the USS Saratoga when it was
destroyed by the Borg during the attack at Wolf 359. His wife,
Jennifer was killed during the attack and he was left to bring up
his son, Jake, by himself. For three years after the Borg attack,
Sisko was a broken man, never being able to recover from the
shattering loss of his wife.
During this time, he worked at the Utopia Planitia shipyards working
on various projects including the prototype of the anti-Borg gunship
(the USS Defiant). He was reassigned to Deep Space Nine as it's
commander when the Cardassians pulled out of their occupation of
Bajor. When he negotiated an understanding with some life forms who
live outside time allowing the use of the Wormhole in Bajoran space,
he became an important figure in Bajoran religion, The Emissary.
For the first two seasons, he commanded DS9 with the rank of
Commander, but in season three he was promoted to Captain.
 Avery
Brooks
Avery Brooks, now best known as Commander Benjamin Sisko on DEEP
SPACE NINE, achieved his first national fame in 1985 as the
hard-boiled character Hawk on the Robert Urich series SPENCER FOR
HIRE. A 1989 spin-off series, A MAN CALLED HAWK, died an early
death, although Brooks returned to play Hawk in a made-for-cable
SPENCER FOR HIRE TV movie in 1993. But viewers familiar with Brooks
though the Hawk character are often surprised to discover the
breadth of his education and background.
Avery Brooks has degrees from Oberlin College and Indiana
University. After attending these colleges he went to the
prestigious Rutgers University, where he was the first black to
achieve a Master of Fine Arts degree in both acting and directing.
Ten years of his life after college were spent in a travelling
production of the powerful play "Paul Robeson," written by
playwright Phillip Hayes Dean. Brooks performed the play all across
the country, from the Westwook Playhouse in Los Angeles to the
Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C., culminating on Broadway. The
1978 play "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been?" gave him the
opportunity to play Paul Robeson in another setting.
Part of Brooks' qualifications for the role of this famous black
singer, in addition to his great acting talent, was his profoundly
deep singing voice. This, it would seem, runs in the family. As
Brooks once told TV GUIDE, his father (who had also played in the
1940s Negro Baseball League) had a strong singing voice as well. "My
father had a voice that shook the walls like thunder," Brooks
recalled. "He sang for a very famous gospel group named Wings Over
Jordan. My mother was a pianist, organist, choral conductor and one
of the first black women to get a master's degree in music from
Northwestern. My uncle was one of the original Delta Rhythm Boys." |
