Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor, blogger, voice actor, and writer. He is known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers as well as Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Wheaton has also appeared in recurring roles as Aqualad in Teen Titans, Cosmic Boy on the Legion of Super Heroes and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the Ben 10 universe. He has as well regularly appeared as a fictionalized version of himself on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and in the roles of Colin Mason on Leverage and Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka. Wheaton is also the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop.
Early life[]
Wheaton was born July 29, 1972, in Burbank, California, to Debra Nordean "Debbie" (née O'Connor), an actress, and Richard William Wheaton, Jr., a medical specialist. He has a brother, Jeremy, and a sister, Amy. Both appeared uncredited in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "When the Bough Breaks". Amy also appeared alongside Wil in the 1987 film The Curse.
Career[]
Early work[]
Wheaton made his acting debut in the television film A Long Way Home (1981), and his first cinema role was as Martin Brisby in the animated film The Secret of NIMH (1982), the movie adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971). He had a minor role in The Last Starfighter (1984) as Louis's friend, but it was cut. He first gained widespread attention for playing Gordie Lachance in Stand by Me (1986), the film adaptation of Stephen King's novella The Body which was originally published in 1982's Different Seasons".